Specious Science: How Genetics and Evolution Reveal Why Medical Research on Animals Harms Humans [Hardcover]

Ray C. Greek (Author), Jean Swingle, D.V.M. Greek (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2002

There is a great divide between species that makes extrapolation of biochemical research from one group to another utterly invalid. In their previous book, Sacred Cows and Golden Geese: The Human Cost of Experiments on Animals, the Greeks showed how an amorphous but insidious network of drug manufacturers, researchers dependent on government grants to earn their living, even cage-manufacturers have perpetuated animal research in spite of its total unpredictability when applied to humans. (Cancer in mice, for example, has long been cured. Chimps live long and relatively healthy lives with AIDS. There is no animal form of Alzheimer's disease.) In doing so, the Greeks blew the lid off the "specious science" we have been culturally conditioned to accept. This persuasive book takes these stunning revelations one step further. In accessible language, it provides the scientific underpinning for the Greeks' philosophy of "do no harm to any animal, human or not," by examining pediatrics, diseases of the brain, new surgical techniques, in vitro research, the Human Genome and Proteome Projects, and an array of scientific and technological breakthroughs.>

Editorial Reviews

Review

"[The Greeks] painstakingly pick apart the reasoning of those who argue the case for using animal models." -- The Civil Abolitionist (CIVITAS), Winter 2002-3

About the Author

C. Ray Greek, M. D., is a board-certified anesthesiologist who has devoted himself to the message of this book. He and coauthor Jean Swingle Greek, D.V.M., speak at national and international forums on the subject of animal experimentation and have recently established Americans for Medical Advancement, a nonprofit foundation based in Los Angeles. Jean Swingle Greek, D.V.M. and co-author C. Ray Greek, M.D. speak at national and international forums on the subject of animal experimentation and have recently established Americans for Medical Advancement, a nonprofit foundation based in Los Angeles. >

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Continuum (May 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826413986
• ISBN-13: 978-0826413987
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,473,323 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

C. Ray Greek received his MD from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1985 and completed a residency in anesthesiology in 1989 at the University of Wisconsin. He has taught at the medical schools of the University of Wisconsin and Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. He has performed research with animals and humans. He is the president and co-founder of Americans For Medical Advancement (AFMA). Greek enjoys scuba diving, swimming with pinnipeds and cetaceans, interacting with African wildlife and photographing same. While he enjoys those activities, what he actually does with his time is take care of all the animals Jean (his veterinary wife) brings home.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Crystal Therapy, Pyramid Power and Faith Healing., May 8, 2002

By 

Rick Bogle (Madison, WI United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Specious Science: How Genetics and Evolution Reveal Why Medical Research on Animals Harms Humans (Hardcover)

Those with a vested interest frequently claim that biomedical research using animals is a necessary evil. Specious Science demonstrates that those who make such claims have wandered from the fact-based rationality that drives real science.

The Greeks use current knowledge of genetics and evolution to explain why animal-modeled science should be viewed with the same skepticism that most educated people view crystal therapy, pyramid power, and faith healing.

Once they have presented a theory for why members of other animal species are not productive models of human disease, the Greeks go on to examine the evidence and demonstrate that their theory is sound. Using the history of medical advancement as their test bed, the authors look at the record and debunk the claims we have all heard about animal research being the source of all cures - claims made by the vested interests that turn out to be spin-doctoring and myth.

With much scholarship and research, the Greeks have uncovered the roots and behind-the-scenes stories of the discoveries that have changed medicine through time into a science. They explain the lost chances and delays that a faith in the animal model has repeatedly caused. They expose the fatal catastrophes that have resulted when scientists have chosen to value animal data over human, and they have explained the surprising histories of the medical miracles that have arisen from doctors trying to help human patients.

The book also points out recent breakthroughs and advances in medicine that are stemming from human biology, genetics, epidemiology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics. We learn that computers are screening chemicals at astonishing rates and predicting their efficacy and toxicity as drugs at a rate and degree of accuracy that will embarrass everyone with a stake in the archaic practice of animal experimentation.

Together, Specious Science and their earlier work, Sacred Cows and Golden Geese, present a cogent and compelling argument that explains why animal experiments continue and why they continue to retard real medicine progress and result in continued human suffering.

Anyone wishing to understand the science of medicine and the debate surrounding the theory of animal models will find this book essential reading.

21 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Specious Science exposes animal model's fundamental flaws, May 20, 2002

By 

Gary Loewenthal (Falls Church, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Specious Science: How Genetics and Evolution Reveal Why Medical Research on Animals Harms Humans (Hardcover)

Finally, an antidote to the incessant and self-serving claims of the animal research industry!

Specious Science excels in at least three areas. First, it's a great primer in the fundamental tenets of sound science. Second, it shows how animal-modelled research fails to meet these basic requirements in theory and in practice. Third, it explains how human-focused medical research, which competes with animal experiments for funding, is superior in its scientific rigor, relevancy, and predictive value.

How many times have we heard that a mouse is the "best" model for studying human disease? One look at a mouse should make you skeptical. The Greeks probe deeper and investigate significant differences between humans and animals at the cellular, sub-cellular, and molecular levels - the arenas in which both the agents of and treatments for disease operate. They explain how small interspecies differences in genetic layout lead to substantial divergences in responses among species. In other words, Evolution 101! The animal model, no matter how strenuous or creatively its proponents argue otherwise, fails this lesson.

"Best animal model" is a fairly meaningless term. Extrapolating from one species to another is fated to be inexact and misleading. Our "hit rate" for medical discoveries is higher in every other type of scientifically-grounded medical research, and for this reason, as the book points out, money squandered on the crude and antiquated animal model harms humans.

Specious Science should be required reading for any life science major, or anyone interested in how charities and the Federal Government spends their health research dollars.

13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another ground-breaker!! But can you handle the truth?, July 28, 2002

By 

Louis Gedo (Flushing, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Specious Science: How Genetics and Evolution Reveal Why Medical Research on Animals Harms Humans (Hardcover)

Dr. Greek has again put forth the most powerful, insightful, and rational reference work in the scope of human health issues. What entities control the way you approach disease and illness, its treatments, and the prevention of it? Here you will find overwhelmingly documented sources and information on how we can finally equip ourselves to understand why Americans have one of the world's worst health records while simultaneously spending more than any other country on 'treatment'. Where is so much of our money being wasted and whom is pocketing the rest? Can you really handle the truth? You can allocate many, many years researching and trying to uncover the answers on your own and still come up far short, or you can save several tens of thousands of dollars and invest less than [price] in an advanced compilation of documentation, which is written, by the way, in lay person's terms. Your co-workers or friends will never return this book to you if you lend it out though---it is that good, I'll attest to this, as I am on my third copy.