Many antivivisection groups claim on their websites that there has been no independent or scientific inquiry about the use of animals in medical research. Therefore they support an Early Day Motion (EDM) in the House of Commons which asks for such an independent inquiry. This EDM (92) was worded by Europeans for Medical Progress (EMP), a deeply discredited group that tries to sound “scientific” but does not have any support in the mainstream scientific community. What’s more, the Advertising Standards Authority has upheld five complaints against an EMP leaflet for being inaccurate and misleading about the science behind animal research.
There is no need for an independent scientific review: all reputable scientific and medical organisations around the world agree that animal research is crucial for our understanding of the body in health and disease and for the development and testing of new medical treatments. In addition, three major UK enquiries have reported since 2002 on the contribution of animal research to science and medicine: in 2002, the House of Lords Select Committee report on Animals in Scientific Procedures, in 2003, the review by the Animal Procedures Committee of cost-benefit assessment in the use of animals in research, and finally in 2005, the Nuffield Council on Bioethics report The Ethics of Research Involving Animals.
If you are tired of unscientific antivisection claims and feel that carefully regulated animal research must go on because it benefits medical research, you too can play your part in this. Please write (preferably) or email your local MP urging them to sign a newer EDM which supports animal research. This EDM, number 1850, allows MPs to show their support, not only for medial research involving animals, but also for those working on the Oxford research facility.
It may be that your MP either cannot sign this EDM, or is unwilling to do so. So it is important that you also ask your MP whether they recognise the need for the well-regulated use of animals in medical research, or what concerns they have about it.
Finally, if you do not know who your local MP is, you can find out, and get their address, by typing your postcode into the box on a very useful locator page.
