NIH Restricts Use of Chimpanzees in Labs 119
vikingpower writes "The U.S. National Institutes of Health on Thursday suspended all new grants for biomedical and behavioral research on chimpanzees and accepted the first uniform criteria for assessing the necessity of such research (full report here). Those guidelines require that the research be necessary for human health, and that there be no other way to accomplish it. A San Francisco Chronicle article points out why chimpanzees are so often used for medical research, as they are evolutionarily the closest to human beings. One may wonder if Europe and Asia are to follow the U.S.?"
New world apes (Score:5, Informative)
We are actually following the EU on this.
Re:Why should Europe or Asia follow the US? (Score:5, Informative)
One may wonder if Europe and Asia are to follow the U.S.?
In Europe, medical tests on apes (Chimpansees, Gorillas, Oerang utans and one other race whose name eludes me at the moment) are already illegal and have been for a few years (even longer in certain member states). Fairly serious restrictions also apply to tests involving other primates.
An article from The Independent 2 years ago announcing the official legislation
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/new-eu-rules-on-animal-testing-ban-use-of-apes-2077443.html