• Question: What do you think about animal testing?

    Asked by to Becky, Clara, Daniel, Simon, Thomas on 17 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Simon Albright

      Simon Albright answered on 17 Mar 2014:

      I think it’s a necessary evil.

      When it comes to cosmetics and things I don’t agree with it, we know enough about what works to no longer require it. But life saving medicines are too important, and too risky to test on people until a lot of work has been done on animals.

    • Photo: Thomas Elias Cocolios

      Thomas Elias Cocolios answered on 17 Mar 2014:

      I would rather have animal testing than human testing. At the same time, it should be done in a way that respect the animals and in that sense, I totally agree with Simon that cosmetic testing is inhuman and should not be supported.

      On the other hand, part of the work being done in my laboratory is the research of new radioisotopes for imaging and cancer treatment. Can you believe that out of 7,500 possible radioisotopes, only 7 are used in medicine! And the reason: the medical scientists do not look any further. This upsets me quite much and CERN has therefore put together the MEDICIS project which will produce a wide variety of radioisotopes to test which ones are the best to cure different illnesses.

      In particular, we have already been researching the terbium (Tb) isotopes, in partnership with the University of Tübingen. While CERN has a policy of 0 animal testing, we do supply that university where such research is being performed. The animals on which the treatment is tested have a 100% survival rate (but I am afraid the control group is not doing that great).

      It is a difficult issue, and as Simon says, a necessary evil.

    • Photo: Becky Martin

      Becky Martin answered on 17 Mar 2014:

      It’s a sad fact of life I’m afraid. Animal testing helps us develop new medications and treatments for both humans and animals, and I therefore think it’s important. Pretty much every Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine since 1901 has needed animal data to make their groundbreaking findings that improve our lives, and scanning techniques such as MRI and CT were developed using animals.

      It’s very well regulated too – All research that involves animal testing in the UK must be approved by the Home Office, furthermore, the researchers and the institutions doing the research must be licensed by the Home Office. Animal research can only be carried out in the UK where there is no suitable non-animal alternative. The standards of animal welfare are also very high in the labs.

      It’s a very emotive issue though, I personally think that some animals being tested is ok, if it saves thousands of lives.

      What do you think?

    • Photo: Clara Nellist

      Clara Nellist answered on 19 Mar 2014:

      I have to agree with the others here. I’m not overly fond of animal testing, but the research that comes from it is really important and can save a lot of lives! But, as Simon said, for testing new cosmetics is not a good reason and I’m completely against that!

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