|
Press
The Guardian, 18 February 2007
Experimental Theatre
Marius Maxwell
It is absurd for Oxford to be building a new animal testing lab at a time
when the accuracy of such testing is so doubtful.
As a neurosurgeon, neuroscientist, and Oxford graduate with three decades
of research experience, I am appalled by the university's decision to build
a new animal laboratory - and by its recent Orwellian attempts to stifle
public debate. How ironic that an institution that relies on academic
freedoms for its very existence is attempting to silence its opponents. What
is the university trying to hide - besides the fact that non-human primates
used in experiments at Oxford are subjected to painful procedures that cause
them to vomit and have seizures, diarrhoea and tremors before they are
killed? And besides the fact that experimenting on sick, terrified animals
endangers human lives?
An article published in December in the British Medical Journal (the
latest in a long series of similar sceptical studies) suggests that using
animal-based drug testing to predict human outcomes is no more accurate than
tossing a coin. The study found that only half of the categories examined
actually succeeded in predicting the results of subsequent human trials, and
even then, "the quality of the experiments was poor".
This helps to explain why, time and again, drugs that were deemed safe
during animal tests have harmed or killed humans. Extensive animal tests on
Vioxx did not reveal that people who take the drug have double the risk of a
heart attack. Animal tests did not reveal the dangers of Phenactin, E-Ferol,
Oraflex, Zomax, Suprol, Selacryn - the list goes on - all of which had to be
taken off the market. Ninety-two out of every 100 drugs that pass animal
tests fail in clinical trials in people. The reason for these failures is no
mystery. Studies published in recent years have shown that primates suffer
increased stress when they are handled by humans, restrained for long
periods of time and subjected to painful experiments. This causes wild
variations in respiration, heartbeat and the release of hormones which
render data questionable.
Consider too, using any non-human animals to study human ailments is
problematic simply because every species is unique. Metabolism,
biochemistry, genetic makeup and expression and physiology are all
different. Though all species share some physiological traits, even minor
differences in physiology can lead to profound differences in disease
pathology, treatment effectiveness and treatment safety - making it
impossible to extrapolate research results from animals, including primates,
to humans.
Forward-thinking scientists in Great Britain and other countries are now
looking for better methods. Instead of squandering £18m to build yet another
animal laboratory, Oxford University should join them.
The National Cancer Institute in America, for example, uses human cancer
cells, taken by biopsy during surgery, to perform first-stage testing for
its new anti-cancer drugs. Private companies are developing
three-dimensional computer models that can predict a chemical's effect on
all the body's organs, as well as 3-D tissue models of eyes and skin made
from human cells. Today's buzzwords are microdosing, nanotechnology and
biochip - not "monkey".
Oxford University could help lead the way to what is clearly the future
by using its funds to establish a world-class medical imaging and research
centre. The explosion of imaging techniques over the past decade (functional
MRI being but one) has, by itself, made experiments on non-human primates
obsolete.
All the genetic manipulations and wishful thinking in the world will not
turn a monkey into a human being. It is time for animal experimenters to
admit this and to start pursuing research methods that will help - not
harm - desperate human patients.
Back to Top
Other Articles
| Show |
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.
|
| Show |
Oxford Magazine, No. 289, Trinity Term 2009
Coetzee in Oxford
Matthew Simpson
|
| Show |
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.
|
| Show |
Cherwell, Thurs 20 November
Tony Benn joins animal lab protest
|
| Show |
Oxford Student, Thurs 20 November
Tony Benn joins fight against Oxford's lab
|
| Show |
Oxford Mail, Mon 17 November
Tony Benn joins lab protest
|
| Show |
"A duty from which I cannot deviate": Bodley's Librarian and the New Laboratory
Matthew Simpson
|
| Show |
Oxford Magazine #272, Hilary Term, 2008
The Future Of Food
Paul Freestone
|
| Show |
Oxford Magazine, Hilary Term, 2007
A Physiologist comes to Oxford
Matthew Simpson
|
| Show |
March 2007 issue of the Parish Magazine of St Giles' and St Margaret's, Oxford
Animal Rights
Martin Henig, Hon. Professor, University College London (Institute of Archaeology) and Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford
|
| Show |
The Guardian, 18 February 2007
Experimental Theatre
Marius Maxwell
|
| Show |
Oxford Magazine, 12 January 2007
Ethics And The Weatherall Report
Dr Katherine Morris, Fellow in Philosophy, Mansfield College
|
| Show |
Press release 24 December 2006
Oxford Vivisectionists are Swimming Against the Tide
Marius Maxwell
|
| Show |
Church Times, 8 September 2006, p.13
The sacrifice of animals to save human lives
Dr Martin Henig
|
| Show |
Response published in “Oxford Magazine”, Trinity Term 2006
I Protest Against Bad Arguments – Do You?
An Oxford philosophy tutor
|
| Show |
Press release 03 July 2006
New group of Oxford academics calls University to account over animal lab
|
| Show |
The Independent. 06 March 2006
comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article349525.ece
Sharon Howe: Animal testing is both cruel and unnecessary
|
| Show |
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.
|
|