Sorry, Frica. Males only.
The subject of this week’s podcast pressed a lot of emotional buttons for me. It resurrected all the complex moral, ethical, and scientific issues related to the use of non-human animal research subjects of any sex. It raised even more complex issues related to sex and gender: Are they the same, different, or an inseparable combination? One easily can imagine legions of behavioral and medical specialists (and even a few religious leaders) claiming the definitive answer to that for their own domains!
The subject of this week’s podcast also caused me to sample some of the millions of scientific articles studying some aspect of it. Articles with titles like:
Sexually Divergent Expression of Active and Passive Conditioned Fear Responses in Rats
Gender bias in research: how does it affect evidence based medicine?
Sex-Specific Effects of Stress on Oxytocin Neurons Correspond With Responses to Intranasal Oxytocin
Given all these studies, that many engaged in research still ignore the obvious–that male and female behavior and physiology differ–baffles me. Computer scientist Grace Hopper wrote that “The most damaging phrase in language is It’s always been done that way.” Scientists working with animals, of all people, should know that isn’t a valid reason for doing it that way now.
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