National First-Class Protected Animal Written into “Medicinal Research”? Experts Appeal: Chinese White Dolphins Must Not Go the Way of Pangolins (II)
2020/4/28 15:24:00 本站

In addition, Article 21 of Chapter 3 of the National Wildlife Protection Law stipulates: prohibit hunting and killing of key state-protected wildlife; Article 27 stipulates: prohibiting the sale, purchase and use of state-protected wildlife and their products.

 

Zhou Jinfeng pointed out that to support the research on medicinal, where did the samples come from? Accidental Death? Or hunting and killing? Regardless of the former or the latter, our laws have strict regulations on this. Regardless of the maturity of the research technology for proliferation and medicine use, based on the fact that the wild population of Chinese white dolphins is already very rare and endangered, protection and rescue should be given priority over multiplication and utilization.

 

There is no pharmacological basis for the Chinese white dolphin medicine, and traditional Chinese medicine does not advocate the use of animals for medicine

 

“There is no pharmacological or pharmacological basis for using Chinese white dolphins for medicine. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, there have been 9 versions of Chinese Pharmacopoeia. In the 2015 version of Chinese Pharmacopoeia, there are no relevant records about the use of Chinese white dolphin medicaments. And although as early as the Tang Dynasty, there were relevant records of Chinese white dolphins along the coast of our country, but there is no empirical expression in medicine use.” Zhou Jinfeng told reporter that in fact, not only Chinese white dolphins, it is recommended that all endangered species should stop being used. Whether it is from zoonotic diseases, from the perspective of harmonious coexistence between man and nature, and the protection of biodiversity, this is related to the overall health and safety of human beings, and it is very important that pharmacological research should not be started.

 

Sun Quanhui said that in the history of traditional Chinese medicine, "the unity of heaven and man" and "awe of life" were advocated, and animal medicine was not advocated. In ancient times, some hard-to-obtain animal ingredients, such as tiger bones, bear bile, musk, pangolin scales, etc., were often not used as popular herbs. So, the prescriptions of traditional Chinese medicines that have been passed down to the present day either do not include them or use herbs that have the same effect but are more easily available. "In other words, the scarcity of these wild animal medicinal materials is not because of their magical effect, but because they are not easily available. Therefore, although some ancient medical books include a small amount of prescriptions containing wild animal ingredients, this does not mean that they are essential. "

 

But the efficacy of medicinal wild animals has been distorted and exaggerated by commerce, misleading many consumers. Driven by trade, a large number of wild animals are hunted from the wild or captive breeding each year, which not only threatens the wild survival of endangered species, but also causes severe abuse and harm to many wild animals.

 

Sun Quanhui pointed out that, from a global perspective, in the traditional medicine, the proportion of wildlife medicine is also small. A recent survey of Chinese medicinal resources in China shows that there are 12,809 kinds of Chinese medicinal materials in China, including 11,146 kinds of plant medicinal materials, and only more than ten kinds of endangered wild animal medicinal materials.

 

In December 2019, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued a notice on the key task division plan of "Opinions on Promoting the Inheritance and Development of Traditional Chinese Medicine", which proposed to strengthen the protection of rare and endangered wild medicinal animals and support rare and endangered traditional Chinese medicine research and development of alternatives. Sun Quanhui said, “Many herbs can completely replace the claimed efficacy of wild animal medicine. Relying on wild resources or artificial breeding methods to obtain wild animal medicinal materials is increasingly difficult to sustain. This approach not only damages the reputation of traditional medicine, but also is not conducive to the protection of wild animals, and it does not conform to the trend and direction of the development of modernization of medicine.”

 

It is recommended that research projects should strengthen the review of scientific ethics and revise relevant laws

 

Zhou Jinfeng suggested that before the introduction of the guidelines for research projects supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, there should be a review of scientific ethics by experts from different fields, according to China ’s guidelines for the ethical review of laboratory animal welfare, endangered animals can only be obtained and used in accordance with the law under very special circumstances, any institution or individual using endangered wildlife for scientific research must comply with this requirement. If there is a corresponding scientific ethics review, this type of problem is not difficult to find.

 

On February 24, 2020, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress made a decision on comprehensively prohibiting illegal wildlife trading, eradicating the bad habits of overeating wild animals, and effectively guaranteeing people's lives, health and safety. Sun Quanhui reminded that, as with the consumption of wild animals, the use of wild animals for medicine also has serious public health and safety risks. He suggested that when amending the "Wildlife Protection Law", "Chinese Medicine Law" and other related laws, the use of national key protected wild animals as medicine should be banned, at the same time, all medicines containing ingredients of endangered wildlife are deleted from the "Pharmacopoeia". Relevant departments also need to take strong measures to actively promote the protection of endangered medicinal wild animals and related industrial transformation.


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(Photo source: Internet)


Original Chinese article:

https://news.sina.com.cn/c/2020-04-24/doc-iirczymi8033647.shtml


By / Maggie