No Brain, No Pain

Researchers in Norway have concluded that lobsters do not feel pain when thrown live into boiling water, because such invertebrates do not have a sophisitcated enough brain and nervous system to experience such anguish. The lobsterian writhing is only a manifestation of an escape instinct according to lobster bioligists in Maine. Animal rights activists counter that studies backed by fishing economies are not to be trusted.

As a mean little kid I remember pulling a leg off a Daddy Long Leg spider and watching it move by itself. Catfish heads also mugged on after being severed. I quit amputating Daddys because I actually admired their grace and lack of menace. I quit putting catfish under the knife when fishing proved too boring between catches. Somehow also, perhaps as some aspect of my Catholic schooling, I felt abusive actions against any of God's creatures was not right - not something Jesus would approve.

Years later, as a young agnostic adult struggling to understand moral issues, I pondered the ethics of animal experimentation, particularly with regard to inflicting pain, especially if the study of the pain itself was one of the purposes of the experiment. When I viewed the museum at Dachau, I wondered how any doctor could have participated in the horrible human experiments conducted there. One in particular that astounded me was the throwing of people into ice water and then quickly slicing the tops of their heads off to see what was happening to the brain [I think this experiement was intended to add to the knowledge of how German sailors might better survive an accidental artic plunge]. I reasoned that the Dachau doctors had probably started experimenting on animals and did not consider experiments on Jews as that much different.

I recall reading a biography of George W. Bush which mentioned how, as a young boy, he liked to perpetrate violence on insects. When asked in the 2000 town hall debate how he felt about so many prisoners being executed in Texas during his time as Governor, his smiling answer was that they would not be around any longer to commit other crimes. From that answer it appeared to me that Bush had made the same leap from insects to prisoners as the Dachau doctors had made from animals to Jews.

As humans we must recognize the danger of trivializing the pain of lower species, because history shows that it is not hard for some humans to treat other humans as a lower species, just by applying a label such as Jew or capital offender. Buddhists practice loving kindness for all sentient beings. If a lobster has the sense to try to escape from boiling water, I think a lobster is sentient.

Here is a report from the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/animalrights/story/0,11917,1408050,00.html

Here is a First Science article on whether fish feel pain: http://www.guardian.co.uk/animalrights/story/0,11917,1408050,00.html