424
sprayed with pesticides to all those of us who were in Dhaka in 1974/1975. Pain is
pain. Comparing pains, as science has continued to discover, is contrary to the
empiricism upon which science prides itself.
If we were serious as a species about ending hunger in humans, we would do so.
If we were equally serious about reducing pain in humans (and other vertebrates),
we would advocate for open, free, and universal assisted euthanasia while revisiting
the legalization of heroin (named after the German word for heroic, “heroisch”),
initially developed in 1874 as the perfect all-round analgesic, deriving from at least
7000 years of human opium use;
26
the first applications of anesthetics in sixteenthcentury Japan; and the horrifying documentation accompanying unanesthetized
amputations on battlefields from the American Civil War to trenches during
World War I.
Of the 63,000+ known species of vertebrates (on earth for the last 525 million
years, invertebrates for approximately 543 million years), and comprising, at most,
about 5% of all known species, vertebrate numbers can at best be estimated. And so
can the pain that must accompany their rapid, or horribly lingering, demise.
Similarly, with invertebrates, there are approximately 1.25 million of their species
thus far identified, but as many as 30 million other invertebrate species that can be
extrapolated.
27
Despite neurobiological biases on either side of the suffering indices,
we must grant that they feel pain. The case of the lobster is among the most studied
and surely troubling (Fig. 46.2).
46.6 Indices of Pain
One way to grapple with the pain and suffering that has gone on among the estimated Kingdoms of life + viruses (earlier we have mentioned between five and
seven such delineations), both intended and unintended consequences, is to consider one source of speculation that examines the average 60% decline in vertebrate
species populations between 1970 and 2014, assessed by the World Wildlife Fund’s
Living Planet Index. This mean average of population level declines also is tantamount to levels of pain.
28
The 60% number (only controversial because, when first
published, it was misinterpreted) coincides with the mass of incorporated carbon, as
a homogenous measure of life on earth. A sample size closest to our own sense of
identifiable pain source, all remaining vertebrates represent a mere 2 gigatons (Gt)
26 See “The History of Heroin,” by Hosztafi S., Acta Pharm Hung. 2001 Aug;71(2):233–42.
PubMed, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11862675, Accessed April 28, 2020.
27 See “National Geographic, Invertebrates, Pictures & Facts,” https://www.nationalgeographic.
com/animals/invertebrates/. Accessed April 27, 2020. See also, “Invertebrates,” Center for
Biological Diversity, https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/invertebrates/. Accessed April
27, 2020.
28 https://livingplanetindex.org/projects?main_page_project=LivingPlanetReport&home_flag=1,
Accessed April 27, 2020.
46 Famine in Bangladesh
sprayed with pesticides to all those of us who were in Dhaka in 1974/1975. Pain is
pain. Comparing pains, as science has continued to discover, is contrary to the
empiricism upon which science prides itself.
If we were serious as a species about ending hunger in humans, we would do so.
If we were equally serious about reducing pain in humans (and other vertebrates),
we would advocate for open, free, and universal assisted euthanasia while revisiting
the legalization of heroin (named after the German word for heroic, “heroisch”),
initially developed in 1874 as the perfect all-round analgesic, deriving from at least
7000 years of human opium use;
26
the first applications of anesthetics in sixteenthcentury Japan; and the horrifying documentation accompanying unanesthetized
amputations on battlefields from the American Civil War to trenches during
World War I.
Of the 63,000+ known species of vertebrates (on earth for the last 525 million
years, invertebrates for approximately 543 million years), and comprising, at most,
about 5% of all known species, vertebrate numbers can at best be estimated. And so
can the pain that must accompany their rapid, or horribly lingering, demise.
Similarly, with invertebrates, there are approximately 1.25 million of their species
thus far identified, but as many as 30 million other invertebrate species that can be
extrapolated.
27
Despite neurobiological biases on either side of the suffering indices,
we must grant that they feel pain. The case of the lobster is among the most studied
and surely troubling (Fig. 46.2).
46.6 Indices of Pain
One way to grapple with the pain and suffering that has gone on among the estimated Kingdoms of life + viruses (earlier we have mentioned between five and
seven such delineations), both intended and unintended consequences, is to consider one source of speculation that examines the average 60% decline in vertebrate
species populations between 1970 and 2014, assessed by the World Wildlife Fund’s
Living Planet Index. This mean average of population level declines also is tantamount to levels of pain.
28
The 60% number (only controversial because, when first
published, it was misinterpreted) coincides with the mass of incorporated carbon, as
a homogenous measure of life on earth. A sample size closest to our own sense of
identifiable pain source, all remaining vertebrates represent a mere 2 gigatons (Gt)
26 See “The History of Heroin,” by Hosztafi S., Acta Pharm Hung. 2001 Aug;71(2):233–42.
PubMed, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11862675, Accessed April 28, 2020.
27 See “National Geographic, Invertebrates, Pictures & Facts,” https://www.nationalgeographic.
com/animals/invertebrates/. Accessed April 27, 2020. See also, “Invertebrates,” Center for
Biological Diversity, https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/invertebrates/. Accessed April
27, 2020.
28 https://livingplanetindex.org/projects?main_page_project=LivingPlanetReport&home_flag=1,
Accessed April 27, 2020.
46 Famine in Bangladesh