Reducing uncertainties in animal experimentation

Man in his quest for knowledge, health and safety has a need to use animals where there is a reasonable expectation that the result will be to extend knowledge or be to the overall benefit of man or animal, just as he uses them for food, clothing and as beasts of burden.

Article 2 of the European Convention for the Protection of Vertebrate Animals used for Experimental and other Scientific Purposes (Strasbourg 1986) provides for animal experimentation in the following terms: "A procedure may be performed for one or more of the following purposes only and subject to the restrictions laid down in this Convention: a) i) avoidance or prevention of disease, ill-health or other abnormality, or their effects, in man, vertebrate or invertebrate animals or plants, including the production and the quality, efficacy and safety testing of drugs, substances or products; ii) diagnosis or treatment of disease, ill-health or other abnormality, or their effects, in man, vertebrate or invertebrate animals or plants; b) detection, assessment, regulation or modification of physiological conditions in man, vertebrate and invertebrate animals or plants; c) protection of the environment; d) scientific research; e) education and training; f) forensic inquiries."

Man has a moral obligation to respect all animals and to have due consideration for their capacity for suffering and memory.