It has been an incredible few days, with 83 members of Parliament now signing EDM 22 and 263, many of them brand new including the courageous Tom Watson MP – a key member in the campaign which shed light on corruption at Rupert Murdoch’s News International – Ian Davidson MP, Michael Meacher MP, David Ward MP, Valerie Vaz MP and Martin Caton MP, who also supported the EDM’s text in its previous Parliamentary session. We have received instructions to include Pete Wishart MP on the EDM; he has signed it but Parliament closed for the General Election before his name could appear publicly on the EDM’s page.
EDM 22 calls for scientists from the animal model community to agree to debate their medical position in a scientific hearing, with conditions endorsed by Britain’s foremost human rights defence barrister Michael Mansfield QC, who is currently representing the Hillsborough families.
The statistics highlighted in EDM 22 are reflected in the British Medical Journal‘s Editor’s Choice, published in June 2014, titled ‘How Predictive and Productive is Animal Research?‘. This article concluded by quoting from he paper it cited:
“If research conducted on animals continues to be unable to reasonably predict what can be expected in humans, the public’s continuing endorsement and funding of preclinical animal research seems misplaced”.
As founder of this organisation, and a patient with multiple sclerosis, I am constantly reminded of the alarming lack possessed by laboratory rats, for guiding scientists who seek effective treatments – and indeed a cure – for MS. Rats do not suffer from MS, but still scientists obtain very precious research funds to try and artificially induce MS symptoms (not) – wobbly, shaking rats who do not have MS – in what they describe as the EAE rat model of this very damaging, human specific illness. MPs have signed the EDMs to hold the continued funding of such misleading animal models to thorough scientific account.
Medical research funds must be channeled solely towards human-based methods, which actually stand a chance of helping shed light for today’s patients. In 2015, human-based methods are incredibly sophisticated and include gene based medicine described in the radio interview with Dr Ray Greek, here.
If you want to understand more about how current medical science evaluates the failure of such veterinary principles for humans, please visit this link. And to read more about what pharmaceutical companies say about the failure of laboratory animal models in their drug development process, visit this link.
Thank you for your time.