The ethics of animal use in biomedicine

Abstract

I hope that the time is past when those who use animals for scientific purposes regard criticisms from animal welfare and animal rights movements as the mere sentimental effusions of people with more heart than head and with a basically anti-scientific frame of mind. The leading figures of these movements have for some time past been people of some academic distinction while the movement for the replacement of animals in biomedical research and testing is spear-headed in Britain by FRAME (Fund for the Replacement of Animals in Medical Experiments) periodical, ATLA (Alternatives to Laboratory Animals), publishes work of high scientific quality. Criticisms of animal experimentation from such sources cannot be laughed off and I hope that this conference will give some attention to them.It is desirable that both practitioners and critics of animal experimentation should be prepared to learn from each other and not necessarily think of all those on the other side as either villains or sentimentalists.