Practice careful giving

The March of Dimes’ top brass makes over $2 million per year. The president alone makes half a million per year. What else do they do with your donations? They have also spent millions of dollars on animal experiments, instead of finding ways to prevent birth defects. In a 10-year study, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the rates for 36 out of 38 birth defects had either stayed the same or worsened.

The March of Dimes recently gave nearly $200,000 to researchers to cause uterine infections in healthy, pregnant monkeys to try to trigger premature labor. In these experiments, researchers insert monitoring cables into the monkeys’ uteruses and into their babies’ bodies. After the babies are delivered, they are killed and dissected. Other disturbing [MOD-funded] animal research includes … brain damaging and freezing newborn ferrets, and inducing the premature birth of lambs—followed by deliberate infliction of lung injury.

The most significant advances in birth defects research have come from human-centered studies, not animal experiments. Researchers working with human populations were responsible for identifying, among other things, the thalidomide disaster, fetal-alcohol syndrome, the association of folic-acid deficiency with spinal-cord abnormalities, and the role of magnesium sulfate in potentially preventing the majority of cerebral palsy and mental retardation in very low-birth-weight babies. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has brought forth this information from the March of Dimes’ financial records, and the scientific data comes from various medical journals.

You could contribute to Easter Seals, Birth Defect Research for Children or other charities that don’t fund animal experiments. An online list of charities that do and do not fund animal experiments is available at www.humaneseal.org . You can also voice your concerns to your local March of Dimes office and encourage others to do the same.

— Mark Crimaudo
Candler

Editor’s note: A similar letter regarding March of Dimes expenditures was received from Leslee Armstrong, who also asked that readers support “compassionate and effective programs.”