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" A leading British scientist has called for testing on great apes to be allowed in the event of a global health epidemic.  Colin Blakemore, the head of the Medical Research Council (MRC), declared that the rules governing the use of great apes in scientific and medical experiments should be bent if using the animals could help find a cure for a lethal pandemic.  Professor Blakemore is an Oxford University brain scientist who strongly supports the use of animals for experiments. He was addressing the launch of a new MRC and Wellcome Trust booklet, Primates in Medical Research, on the benefits of using primates for research.  &amp;quot;I can see no current necessity for the use of great apes, and I&amp;#039;m pleased that they&amp;#039;re not being used and that every effort is being made to reduce the use of other primates,&amp;quot; the Independent newspaper reports him as saying. &amp;quot;But I worry about the principle of where the moral boundaries lie. There is only one very secure definition that can be made, and that is between our species and others.&amp;quot;  The government pledged in 1997 never to allow testing on chimpanzees and great apes again because the animals are too similar to humans. However, the practice has not been outlawed and ministers could approve testing if an application was made.  The British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) has criticised Dr Blakemore for his comments, pointing out that stress caused to primates by experiments can affect the results. A number of other countries still carry out experiments on great apes and many scientists insist that primates are vital to medical research.  \u00A9 Adfero Ltd "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/healthy-living/news/a13783/medical-testing-on-apes-a-possibility/>