ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION

ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION Using animals to advance scientific knowledge, understand disease, develop new medicines, or test the safety of chemicals is highly controversial. At one extreme people think that there are no moral problems; while at the other, some people justify violence to protect animals. A recent survey found that most young people in the UK were uneasy about animal experiments, or thought that they should be banned. Animal experimentation is a huge industry. Each year …

…or protest against some or all of the animal experiments now carried out. Equally we may want to defend some animal experiments as a means to make people healthier or because we believe that within limits scientists should follow where the scientific story they are investigating leads. Neither the aggressive arguments of some of the scientific community, nor the bombings committed by animal rights extremists, seem likely to win anyone else over to their sides.