Rachel hajar animal testing biography
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Medical Testing on Animals: A Brief History
Animals are used in biomedical research for everything from basic understanding and exploratory research to drug and vaccine development. The use of animals as models in medical research has existed since the beginnings of medicine and has led to the discovery and creation of treatments and cures for a long list of ailments. It is not the purpose of this blog post to argue against the well-known fact that the use of non-human animals in biomedical research has given important contributions to the medical progress. However, awareness and knowledge of the types of procedures animals are subjected to for the purpose of scientific and medical progress provides for an educated, public, scientific and philosophical debate on a long-standing and controversial topic. This blog post explores the thoughts, beliefs, and scientific advancements surrounding animals and their place in the biomedical research world throughout history.
Early Greek physi
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CU's Alumnus, Qatar's Doctor
A gift to Connect Cardiologists Around the World
By Amy Ventura
(November 2014) Hajar A. Hajar Al Binali hunched over his desk, scribbling algebraic calculations in Arabic letters. When he arrived at the solution to the problem, he wrote the answer using the långnovell alphabet. His American professor looked at him with skepticism when he handed in his work.
“If your final answer is incorrect, I can’t give you credit for the Arabic calculations,” he told Hajar.
A newcomer to the U.S. from Qatar in the late 1960s, Hajar had to conquer all the requirements for his bachelor’s degree before he could achieve his dream of becoming a doctor.
From struggling student to Qatari medicin pioneer
“After finishing junior high school, he went to the United States on a government scholarship,” Hajar’s wife, Rachel Hajar, MD, says of her husband’s early years of U.S. schooling. “He could not understand
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“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”
- Mahatma Gandhi
Animals have been used repeatedly throughout the history of biomedical research. Early Greek physician-scientists, such as Aristotle, (384 – 322 BC) and Erasistratus, (304 – 258 BC), performed experiments on living animals. Likewise, Galen (129 – 199 / 217 AD), a Greek physician who practiced in Rome and was a giant in the history of medicine, conducted animal experiments to advance the understanding of anatomy, physiology, pathology, and pharmacology. Ibn Zuhr (Avenzoar), an Arab physician in twelfth century Moorish Spain, introduced animal testing as an experimental method for testing surgical procedures before applying them to human patients.
In recent years, the practice of using animals for biomedical research has come under severe criticism by animal protection and animal rights groups. Laws have been passed in several countries to make the practice more