Can Medical Research on Animals be Justified?

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Although the debate over using animals in medical research receives little attention in the media, information about animal experiments is reaching the public. Polls clearly show that many people disapprove of animal testing.

In one survey conducted in 2005 by an independent polling company for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, 75 percent of respondents said they disapproved of all animal research and testing that cause severe pain and distress. Fifty-seven percent strongly disapproved.

A poll commissioned by the Humane Society of the United States in 2001 found similar results. Seventy-five percent of the respondents said they disapproved of all animal tests that cause animals to suffer. Sixty percent opposed experiments that cause even moderate pain and distress. A full one-third objected to all animal experimentation, whatever the reason or the level of pain and distress.

A third poll, conducted in 2006 by a news outlet in England , showed that 51 percent of nearly one million voters said they were not in favor of animal testing.

And it isn’t just the general public that has problems with the use of animals in medical research. Eighty-two percent of general practitioners surveyed by Europeans for Medical Progress in 2004 said they were concerned that animal data can be misleading when applied to humans.

In fact, a growing number of Americans favor health charities that have a policy against funding animal experiments. A report by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine demonstrated that support for such charities increased by 20 percent from 2001 to 2005. PCRM administers the Humane Charity Seal of Approval (www.humaneseal.org) an innovative program that identifies which health charities do not fund animal tests.