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Press
The Guardian. 10 March 2006
www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,1727750,00.html
We're not terrorists, and we're not against progress.
Protesters against animal experimentation should not be
caricatured as anti-science, says Sharon Howe.
Despite his Orwellian imagery, Timothy Garton Ash's
stereotypical presentation of an enlightened pro-vivisection
elite versus an ignorant and destructive bunch of "antis" is
hardly consistent with his declared belief in the "pursuit of
truth and the defence of reason" (We must stand up to the
creeping tyranny of the group veto, March 2). These
principles are genuinely close to my heart. That's why I am
passionately opposed to animal experimentation. And that's
why I am returning my first-class Oxford degree as a personal
protest against the university's new biomedical research
centre.
Yes, animal testing has always gone on at Oxford. But the
university has also produced some eminent critics of
animal-based research: John Ruskin resigned his position as
professor of literature the day after vivisection was
introduced.
It is ironic that Garton Ash should centre his argument on
the importance of free speech, as it is this vital privilege
which is being eroded by the injunction imposed upon those
who wish to exercise their right to peaceful protest - they
are now allowed to voice their views outside the college only
between 1pm and 5pm on Thursdays.
It may make for better headlines to portray
anti-vivisectionists as terrorists bent on obstructing
medical progress, but it couldn't be further from the truth.
The vast majority are compassionate individuals who find it
an outrage that millions of pounds of taxpayers' money is
wasted on outdated and misleading animal-based research,
while doctors at Oxford's own Radcliffe Infirmary are crying
out for funds to invest in human-based stroke research.
The time has come for a proper, reasoned debate: to get away
from the specious "dog or child" dilemma with which
pro-vivisectionists seek to play on our fears. The Home
Office itself admitted that it "has not commissioned or
evaluated any formal research on the efficacy of animal
experiments".
Despite the fact that human brains can now be studied
non-invasively using hi-tech scanners, diseases such as
Parkinson's - for which I am particularly keen to see a cure
as I watch my own mother suffer from its debilitating effects
- are still being painfully and artificially induced in
monkeys who do not naturally develop them.
But the tide of public opinion is changing. Plans for a
similar animal lab at Cambridge were abandoned after the
university failed to prove a "national need" at a public
planning meeting. In 2002, MEPs voted for a complete review
of the use of all primates in experiments. And there has been
strong support among MPs for an Early Day Motion calling for
an independent scientific evaluation of the clinical
relevance of animal testing - support shared by 83% of GPs,
according to a survey by Europeans for Medical Progress.
The technology to achieve change already exists - it is
institutional inertia and vested interests that are holding
back progress. Here is the perfect opportunity to move
forward and develop a centre of excellence for cutting-edge,
non-animal research which would only enhance Oxford's
reputation as a seat of human progress. Then I too could
regain my pride in being associated with it.
Sharon Howe is a graduate of Oxford university
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Other Articles
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September 2011
New animal experimentation law: VERO calls for stricter controls
Directive 2010/63/EU on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes is due to be transposed into UK
law by the end of 2012. The Home Office public consultation on how this should be done has just ended. The standards set
out in the Directive would actually allow for (but not require) some weakening of the UK's already disappointing
law. VERO has responded to the consultation urging the Government to retain the requirements of UK law where
they are stricter than the Directive, while incorporating any new measures conducive to improving animal protection.
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Oxford Magazine, No. 289, Trinity Term 2009
Coetzee in Oxford
Matthew Simpson
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An Open Letter on Parkinson’s research - Neuroscientist Marius Maxwell sets the record straight on Parkinson's research
Marius Maxwell
In an open letter to VERO, Oxford University alumnus Marius Maxwell MBBChir DPhil (MD PhD) strongly refutes the often
repeated claim that the deep brain stimulation technique used to treat
Parkinson's disease patients has its origins in primate research.
On the contrary, he argues, the technique was first developed in humans decades before the first monkey model of Parkinson's was ever conceived. In a detailed chronology of the research undertaken in this field over the last century, Maxwell demonstrates that all the major advances in the treatment of movement disorders have come about through the study of actual human patients, not contrived animal models. To suggest otherwise is, according to Maxwell, to distort the true historical facts and ignore the key contributions of earlier, pioneering neuroscientists. Worst of all, the continued justification and funding of primate research for Parkinson's disease and similar disorders is hampering the development of other, more progressive and humanly relevant techniques, and hence delaying the discovery of a definitive treatment for the disease. In conclusion, Maxwell therefore calls for an immediate end to such research, in the interests not just of the defenceless animals on whom it is conducted, but of the human patients still awaiting a cure for their debilitating disease.
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Cherwell, Thurs 20 November
Tony Benn joins animal lab protest
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Oxford Mail, Mon 17 November
Tony Benn joins lab protest
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March 2007 issue of the Parish Magazine of St Giles' and St Margaret's, Oxford
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Martin Henig, Hon. Professor, University College London (Institute of Archaeology) and Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford
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The Guardian, 18 February 2007
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Marius Maxwell
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Oxford Magazine, 12 January 2007
Ethics And The Weatherall Report
Dr Katherine Morris, Fellow in Philosophy, Mansfield College
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Press release 24 December 2006
Oxford Vivisectionists are Swimming Against the Tide
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Church Times, 8 September 2006, p.13
The sacrifice of animals to save human lives
Dr Martin Henig
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Response published in “Oxford Magazine”, Trinity Term 2006
I Protest Against Bad Arguments – Do You?
An Oxford philosophy tutor
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Press release 03 July 2006
New group of Oxford academics calls University to account over animal lab
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The Independent. 06 March 2006
comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article349525.ece
Sharon Howe: Animal testing is both cruel and unnecessary
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The Guardian. 10 March 2006
www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,1727750,00.html
We're not terrorists, and we're not against progress.
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