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A comment on Biomedical companies bleed 500k horseshoe crabs a year. Parent comment

Re:Biomedical companies bleed 500k horseshoe crabs a year by justinator on Monday April 17, 2017 @12:25PM (#14132144)
> I don't think it's ridiculous to say that human lives are worth more than some momentary discomfort for crabs.

Well: says the human.

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Re:Biomedical companies bleed 500k horseshoe crabs a year by aeturnum on Monday April 17, 2017 @12:28PM (#14132179)
You're right, people would never accept a regime where humans were drained of some of their blood in order to give other humans medical treatment with that blood.
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Re:Biomedical companies bleed 500k horseshoe crabs a year by djrogers on Monday April 17, 2017 @12:36PM (#14132262)
> You're right, people would never accept a regime where humans were drained of some of their blood in order to give other humans medical treatment with that blood.

Yes, that'd be due to the fact that we see humans as equals, and the same is not true for humans and horseshoe crabs.

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Re:Biomedical companies bleed 500k horseshoe crabs a year by mirimir on Monday April 17, 2017 @12:42PM (#14132319)
Well, it's OK if it's voluntary. But that gets murky for prisoners, who arguably can't freely decline.
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Re:Biomedical companies bleed 500k horseshoe crabs a year by maxerickson on Monday April 17, 2017 @01:02PM (#14132512)
Even setting aside statistics about various communicable diseases, prejudice would make use of prisoner blood a tenuous thing.

(I mean beliefs about prisoners being "bad" or "tainted" or whatever and people not wanting to receive their blood)

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Re:Biomedical companies bleed 500k horseshoe crabs a year by mirimir on Monday April 17, 2017 @02:54PM (#14133426)
Well, it is a bad idea, for both human-rights and health reasons.[0,1]

1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tainted_blood_scandal_(United_...

2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factor_8:_The_Arkansas_Prison_...

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Re:Biomedical companies bleed 500k horseshoe crabs a year by throwanem on Monday April 17, 2017 @01:05PM (#14132538)
Few whole-blood transfusions occur in a setting where the patient can inquire in detail as to provenance.
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Re:Biomedical companies bleed 500k horseshoe crabs a year by maxerickson on Monday April 17, 2017 @01:08PM (#14132567)
Of course. That doesn't mean people wouldn't react to news about blood being collected in prisons.
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Re:Biomedical companies bleed 500k horseshoe crabs a year by tree_of_item on Monday April 17, 2017 @12:33PM (#14132231)
Obviously. Are you really going argue that humans aren't worth more than crabs? Would you genuinely let your own family members suffer a preventable disease because you didn't want to injure a crab?
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Re:Biomedical companies bleed 500k horseshoe crabs a year by justinator on Monday April 17, 2017 @05:39PM (#14134648)
It's an interesting philosophical question, I think. You can apply to all sorts of different scenarios - say milking a cow.

We seem to be a species that likes to destroy entire environments and extinguish other species. We can always say, "but it was for our well-being".

Where do you draw the line, then? Some people live a vegan lifestyle (I don't), some will not wear fur, or like to buy products that are tested on animals - or other products that are mass produced by wiping out entire forests for a mono crop.

To further the philosophical debate, what if you apply the same emotional attachment you have on a loved one, to the animal? Would you harvest an organ from your family dog, if it meant your brother had a 50% chance of living? What if the dog had a 50% chance of surviving the operation to remove the organ? What if those chances were greater or less?

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Re:Biomedical companies bleed 500k horseshoe crabs a year by Spoygg on Monday April 17, 2017 @04:44PM (#14134256)
It's not "injure a crab" though.
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Re:Biomedical companies bleed 500k horseshoe crabs a year by camelNotation on Monday April 17, 2017 @12:27PM (#14132169)
Well, yes. Whose side are you on, anyway?
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