animals is useless. The drug thalidomide passed animal tests but resulted in horrific birth defects when used by pregnant women. Rebuttal This popular argument ignores all the thousands of drugs that failed animal testing, any number of which could have harmed humans. In the case of thalidomide, no testing was performed on pregnant animals; had this not been the case, the effect on pregnant women could have been foreseen. See also Appeal to consequences Cutting off the nose to spite the face Emotional memory Optimism bias Perfect is the enemy of good Pollyanna principle Wishful thinking References Further reading Informal fallacies