-修养
Unit 8 Section A Animals or
children?
—
A scientist's
choice
动物还是孩子
?
——<
/p>
一位科学家的选择
1 I am
the enemy! I am one of those cursed, cruel
physician scientists involved in
animal
research. These rumors sting, for I have never
thought of myself as an evil person.
I
became a children's doctor because of my love for
children and my supreme desire to
keep
them healthy. During medical school and residency,
I saw many children die of
cancer and
bloodshed from injury
—
circumstances against which
medicine has made
great progress but
still has a long way to go. More importantly, I
also saw children
healthy thanks to
advances in medical science such as infant
breathing support, powerful
new
medicines and surgical techniques and the entire
field of organ transplantation. My
desire to tip the scales in favor of
healthy, happy children drew me to medical
research.
1
我就是那个敌人
!
我就是那些被人诅咒的、残忍的、搞动物实验的医生科学
家之一。这些谣言刺痛了我
,
因为我从来没想到自己是一个邪恶
的人。我成为一位
儿科医生
,
因为我爱
孩子
,
也因为我的最大愿望是让他们保持健康。在医学院学习和
住院医生实习时
,
我看到了许多儿童死
于癌症和受伤流血
——
虽然对此医学正取得
很大进步
,
但远非完善。更重要的是
,
我还看到孩子们能保持健康得益于医学的进步
,
如婴儿呼吸支持器
,
功效强大的新药物和外科手术
技术及整个器官移植领域的发
展。我希望孩子们健康快乐
,
这促使我从事医学研究。
2 My
accusers have twisted the truth into a fable and
cast me as the devil. They
claim that I
have no moral compass, that I torture innocent
animals for the sole purpose
of career
advancement, and that my experiments have no
relevance to medicine.
Meanwhile, an
uncaring public barely watches, convinced that the
issue has no
significance, and
publicity-conscious senators and politicians
increasingly give way to
the lobbying
of animal rights activists. 2
控诉我的人把真相歪
曲成一则神话
,
并把我描
写成恶魔。他
们声称我没有道德界限
,
我折磨那些无辜动物的唯一目的就是为
了自
己的职业升迁
,
而我的实验根本与
医药毫不相关。与此同时
,
无动于衷的公众几乎不
闻不问
,
相信这个议题毫无意义
,
而具有宣传意识的参议员和
政治家们却对动物权利
活动家的游说不断作出让步。
3 We, in medical research, have also
been unbelievably uncaring. We have allowed
the most extr eme animal rights
protesters to creep in and frame the issue as one
of
would consent to the
importance of animal research for public health.
Perhaps we have
been mistaken in not
responding to the emoti onal tone of the argument.
Perhaps we
should have responded to
those sad slogans and posters of animals by waving
equally sad
posters of children dying
of cancer or external wounds.
3
我们这些从事医学研究的人也显得令人难以置信的冷漠。我们允许最极端的
动物
权利活动家渐渐侵入
,
任凭他们把此类研究诬陷为
“
动物欺诈
”
和对动物的仇
恨。我们一直坚信
,
有知识的公众会赞
同动物研究对公众健康的重要性。也许我们
的错误是没有对这场争论的感性基调作出反应
。也许我们早应该挥动着儿童死于癌
症或外伤的同样令人伤心的海报
,
来回应那些关于动物受害的伤感标语及海报。
4 In the animal rights forum, much is
made of the volume of pain these animals
experience in the name of medical
science. Activists deny that we are trying to help
and
say it is evidence of our ev il and
cruel nature. A more reasonable argument, however,
can be advanced in our defense. Life i
s often cruel to animals and human beings.
Teenagers are flung from trucks and
suffer severe hea
d injuries. Young
children barely abl
e to walk find
themselves at the bottom o
f swimmin
g pools w hile a parent is occupied wit