• Question: Do you believe in animal testing??

    Asked by testtubelover to Ben, Jony, Katharine, Mark, Peter on 17 Nov 2011. This question was also asked by erica, iloveanimals, tanith.
    • Photo: Ben Still

      Ben Still answered on 15 Nov 2011:

      A loaded question…. I think that trials of new medicines are essential and that animal testing is an important part of these tests. I do not agree with using animals for testing cosmetics and beauty products as these are non-essentials.

    • Photo: Jony Hudson

      Jony Hudson answered on 15 Nov 2011:

      Only when there is absolutely no other way, and when the results will save lives or improve health. And it still makes me sad.

    • Photo: Katharine Schofield

      Katharine Schofield answered on 15 Nov 2011:

      Definitely not for cosmetics, that’s just not necessary. But for sometimes it is necessary for testing drugs which will then help save lives. It has to be done responsibly and humanely though, and anyone who does this sort of research must sign up to an ethical code to protect the welfare of the animals as far as possible. I would want to be convinced that there is no alternative, and that there is a clear and compelling scientific reason.

    • Photo: Mark Basham

      Mark Basham answered on 15 Nov 2011:

      Very tricky question testtubelover,

      I have to agree with the other guys, the only time when Animal testing should be used is as a last resort, and I think were lucky in this country that we have very good ethics code as Katherine says.

    • Photo: Peter Williams

      Peter Williams answered on 17 Nov 2011:

      When it’s medically necessary

Comments

  • Photo: testtubelover

    testtubelover commented on :

    eah so baisically its rightin the neame of science. So what if there was this beautiful alien who was completely innocent and crash landed on earth, would u disect it??
    And would u test on humans??

    • Photo: Mark

      Mark commented on :

      We do test on humans eventually, but after we are reasonably sure that there will be no really bad side effects. Its a tricky subject though, especially when medicine is involved, how many mice is it OK to kill to save 1 humans Life. Tricky questions that as a Physicist I’m glad I don’t have to answer.

      One thing I do know something about though is Imaging and especially non intrusive medical imaging like PET and CAT scans would mean that we probably wouldn’t have to dissect the Alien to understand it.