Is it justified?

Experimentation on great apes should not be ruled out in the future according to the chief executive of the MRC, Professor Colin Blakemore

Chimpanzees, orang-utans and gorillas have not been used for research in the UK for over 20 years and their use is currently banned.
However, while pointing out that there was no current need for experiments on great apes, Prof Blakemore said: “I'm not entirely comfortable with the absolute ban on the use of great apes. If there was a new infectious disease threatening the country for which the only test models were chimps and gorillas, I think that would lead us to reflect on our position.”
Professor Blakemore’s comments came as two opposing reports on the use of primates in medical research were published. One - by the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) - argues that the current ban should extend to all non-human primates, and another - by the MRC and Wellcome Trust - points out the importance of primate research in new health care developments.
The MRC report highlights the scientific consensus that lower primates remain essential to research as the alternatives have not yet reached a point at which they can provide the same information.
Dr Simon Festing, executive director of the Research Defence Society, told Laboratory News: “BUAV take the stance that the lower primates are so similar to humans that they take on our moral status. However, they also assume that despite this similarity, the results that are gained from experiments on them are not similar enough to be valid. We feel that both assumptions are wrong, especially the latter.”
Alistair Currie, BUAV campaigns director said: “The MRC of all people should be investing in research that works, not trying to turn back the clock. Advances in drug development and non-animal techniques mean that the crude ‘try it in a monkey’ system simply isn’t serving our needs.”
Only 0.1% of regulated procedures are performed on lower primates, and only 0.01% are used in the fundamental research of which the BUAV are so critical.
Both the BUAV report – entitled Next of Kin, and the MRC/Wellcome trust report are available online at http://www.buav.org/nextofkin/report and www.wellcome.ac.uk/doc%5Fwtx031835.html respectively.