Nature 420, 447 (2002); doi:10.1038/420447b
Promoting animal research
Researchers need to be more active in explaining the value and necessity of their work.
The odds are that there will ultimately be a favourable outcome to a planning inquiry currently under way in Cambridge, UK, examining the case for a new centre for primate neuroscience at the university. It is being held under the auspices of the local authority, which previously decided against the centre for the unusual reason that the probable public protests would be too problematic. The outcome will be referred (probably early next year) to the British deputy prime minister, John Prescott, for a final decision, and the government has rightly declared the centre to be a national 'need' — thus, incidentally, justifying construction on a site of protected 'green field' status.
The arguments being deployed in the inquiry are not about science. However, opponents are disputing the 'need' on the quasi-scientific and fallacious grounds that animal research is both misleading and unnecessary, given available alternatives.
What is striking about the debates is the near-invisibility of the scientific community, apart from the stalwart but predictable Research Defence Society. This absence of active researchers does nothing but help the opponents of essential research that has in the past attracted broad public acceptance. Certainly, some animal researchers have been treated viciously in other contexts, but objectors here have restricted themselves to presenting the arguments.
The evidence of opinion polls and the lack of public hostility to some people who have recently supported animal research suggests that a well-planned campaign of information and public representation can keep the worst excesses at bay. Relying on individual researchers to stand prominently in isolation is a recipe for scientific and democratic failure. It is feasible for scientists to band together to campaign on a single issue. Whatever happens at Cambridge, collective public representation in Britain and elsewhere of the animal researchers' case needs to be developed in a professional manner. |
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