A two-year study has recommended a greater focus in looking for
other methods of conducting medical research, as the continued
use of animals in experiments is both unrealistic and ethically
controversial. The report was particularly critical of the
formal nature of researchers and urged a more open atmosphere,
in which more opportunity for discusions about replacements
would be ideal to reduce tensions between different sides of the
debate. The problem of conservatism in science was the main
obstacle to opening these discussions. Members of the working
party reported that, in their experience, researchers who had
always used animals had been closed to the idea of discussing
potential replacements. The study, which was complied by the
Nuffield Council on Bioethics, accepted that animal experiments
would be the preferred method in the short term, crediting the
enormous contribution made by animal experiments to medical
science. It becomes the third independent study, after the House
of Lords select committee i