Our patron André Menache sends the following information:
An article published in the peer-reviewed Medicolegal and Bioethics presents a rare challenge not just to the ethics but also to the science of using non human primates in research.
Public surveys have consistently shown the general public to be uneasy about the use of non human primates in scientific research. For example, 80 per cent of respondents to the European Commission’s public consultation on the current revision of Directive 86/609/EEC (on the protection of animals in laboratories) responded that the use of primates in laboratories was “not acceptable”.
Now, a team of scientists, including a professor of neuroscience based at the University of California in San Diego, has published an in-depth analysis that will make researchers who use animals begin to question not just the ethics of using these animals in research, but also the science that underpins their use as “models” of human diseases. The article, published December 6th, 2011 in the online peer-reviewed journal Medicolegal and Bioethics, represents a rare challenge to the use of non human primates in science.
Full online article is available at: http://www.dovepress.com/articles.php?article_id=8799
Reference to EC public consultation is available at: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/chemicals/lab_animals/pdf/results_citizens.pdf
wild monkeys in a New Delhi garden