I thank the hon. Lady for that intervention, but as a hard-nosed scientist, no. People work on the best organism to give them the answer that they want to see. They might not get the answer and they might even have to work on a worm to get the answer that they want. In other cases, people want to move up to the clinical situation. There, they have to go through rhesus monkeys and so on.
I know that lots of people think that using animals is ethically wrong, but I tell the House this: scientists can be fallible, but they are tightly regulated and have to go through ethical committees in much of the work that they do. They have to get permission to use certain animals and they have to deliberate on how they are going to use them. They have to prove how things will be done so that there is no cruelty appertaining to that situation. Mice, rats, guinea pigs and other animals have all featured over the history of this period, but—
Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill [Lords]
Proceeding contribution from
Ian Gibson
(Labour)
in the House of Commons on Monday, 19 May 2008.
It occurred during Debate on bills
and
Committee of the Whole House (HC) on Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill [Lords].
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
476 c37 
Session
2007-08
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Subjects
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Timestamp
2023-12-15 23:14:32 +0000
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