Unfortunately, the use of nonhuman animals in laboratories has always been entrusted to people in the habit of ardently shutting out criticism. Research bureaucrats, for example-- those who determine funding priorities--regularly sidestep criticism of animal experimentation, even if it comes from within the ranks of science and medicine.
But certain challenges to their position are irrefutable. Since animal models are mere analogues to their human counterparts, experiments on animals can neither confirm nor disprove any scientific theory about humans.
Thus, I suggest, changes in research priorities relating to animal experimentation are in order--changes that would likely accelerate the pace of medical progress. Reallocation of funds from research depending on animal models to clinical studies using human subjects would see funds being effectively applied to investigations that stand a better chance of reliably generating and testing hypotheses about humans.
In their arguments, proponents of animal experimentation tend to cite laboratory animals' ...
