We, the undersigned faculty from the Department of Neurobiology
in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, would like to
express our support for Professor Dario Ringach and his family.
Professor Ringach was forced to abandon animal research on brain
processing of visual information based on experiments with macaque
monkeys.
His research resulted in vicious terrorist activities against
him, his family and colleagues by an animal rights extremist
organization. Such research holds out hope for developing visual
cortical prosthetic devices.
Similar tactics have been used over the last decade to
intimidate and threaten other UCLA faculty members engaged in
solving basic biological questions and problems underlying diseases
and illnesses.
The UCLA community remains apathetic in the face of these
personal threats. As before, the administration’s response to
the present threats was to issue a press release and provide some
security for the researcher and his family, which we deem
inadequate.
We are somewhat encouraged by Vice Chancellor for Research
Roberto Peccei’s statement (“Extremists target
legitimate research,” Viewpoint, Aug. 21), but await concrete
action.
It must be remembered that under repeated harassment and the
threat of violence to his family, Professor Ringach’s
academic freedom and his rights were violated.
What can you do? Think: Is your life better because of
biomedical advances or worse?
Scourges of humanity, such as smallpox, cancer, polio,
tuberculosis, diabetes, AIDS and heart disease, are tamed by drugs
and therapies devised and tested in animals.
Ask questions and talk to scientists. Write to your government
representatives. Encourage them to support legislation to prevent
future violence against biomedical researchers.
Remember, we are UCLA ““ all of us.
Most of you students will be here for a short time. What kind of
an institution do you want to leave behind? Do you want it to be a
place where free and critical thinking thrives? Or should a few
fanatics armed with Molotov cocktails dictate what you think?
There is no place in the U.S. for Mao’s dictum that
political power emanates from the barrel of a gun.
Democracy demands dialogue.
Threatening families and firebombing homes is the way of
terrorism no matter where it’s found.
The following neurobiology department faculty members
support this submission: James Bisley, Ph.D.; Dean Bok, Ph.D.;
Nicholas Brecha, Ph. D; Lars Dreier, Ph.D.; Jerome Engel, M.D.,
Ph.D.; Robin Fisher, Ph.D.; Roger Gorski, Ph.D.; Ronald Harper,
Ph.D.; Thomas Otis, Ph.D.; Carlos Portera-Cailliau, M.D., Ph.D.;
Felix Schweizer, Ph.D.; Alcino Silva, Ph.D.; and Anna Taylor,
Ph.D.