The news in the Times that monkeys have been genetically engineered in the US to contract Huntington’s disease (HD) highlights the continuing ethical dilemmas of animal research. There cannot be any doubt of the suffering of the animals, although it is not pain itself which is a major feature of HD.

It is presumably this suffering, rather than genetic engineering per se, which led the RSPCA to ‘completely condemn’ these experiments. But that is only one side of the story. As always, a modicum of balance is necessary before making a judgement for society as a whole. The other side of the coin is that many people still suffer with HD. Indeed, because of such neurodegenerative diseases, it is likely that the number of monkeys used in research worldwide will rise in future years.

It is true, as the RSPCA points out, that there are other methods of research. But they have limitations and are not satisfactory. In the absence of greater information about the likelihood of scientific and medical benefits from such research, we cannot give a verdict on this particular research. We hope our colleagues in the US have done as good a job as we would wish to see in carefully assessing and weighing the potential benefits against the harms to the animals. This would be the very least we would expect.