The secret of the eternal youth

Brooke Greenberg, 16, is a daughter of Melanie and Howard Greenberg. The couple has three other children, aged 13, 19 and 22 – all of them females. The other Greenberg girls are growing like all other kids. Brooke, who already turned 16, seems to be stuck in her infancy. Her appearance has not been changing for 15 years already.

Brooke weighs about 7 kilos, she is 80 centimeters tall. The girl has a baby’s body and face. There is no other human being like her anywhere in the world. Scientists say that the parts of the girl’s body live independently from one another. For example, Brooke has infant’s teeth and brain, but the structure of her bones corresponds to those of a ten-year-old child.
Modern medicine knows many incidents of premature aging. There are about 20 children living in the world today, who suffer from an extremely rare disease known as progeria. All of them look
like elderly people, although they are only ten years of age. The disease develops as a result of genetic mutation.
Scientists originally believed that Brooke Greenberg had an opposite of progeria. A closer insight showed, though, that the girl was not suffering from any known genetic diseases. Since the phenomenon is obvious – the girl is not ageing – scientists believe that she gives the world an opportunity to find out why it happens. They hope that they will find the gene or a group of genes, which make people change with years and eventually die.

The little girl does not speak. She can not eat alone either – her parents have to use special tubes to feed the child. Nevertheless, the secret of everlasting youth is hidden somewhere inside the poor child.

Animal Testing

I believe that animal testing is necessary nowadays. Some animals may suffer for the benefit of humans. If you prevent animal testing, should you stop people from eating meat? Many scientists say that they can't cure deadly diseases without using animals.
I believe that animal testing is extremely necessary because it is unethical to make people sick on purpose. Most experiments can only be done on animals. As a result of animal testing we have discovered diseases and cures for most of them.
If you prevent animals from being tested, should you stop people from eating meat?
Killing an animal for food isn't that different from killing an animal while testing a new product or medicine. Animal testing could be considered more necessary than killing an animal for food. People enjoy the animal "products" that they consume daily.
Many scientists say that humans can't cure deadly diseases without using animals. Without animal testing scientists believe that it may take longer to find cures for diseases like AIDS, cancer and Alzheimer's. Causing unnecessary suffering is wrong, but conducting experiments on animals is necessary for human health. The testing that scientists perform on animals can save human lives.
Animal rights activists' claim that test tube experiments, computer simulations and other methods are alternatives to testing medicines and other products on animals. Many of these techniques are valuable, and are used by scientists on a regular basis. The problems are that they don't tell us everything we need to know. Mixing human cells with a new drug in a test tube doesn't show how the drug will affect an entire human body. Animals are far too complicated for computers to simulate perfectly. Animal testing is a very important step in improving human health.