Chimpanzees in Biomedical and Behavioral Research: Assessing the Necessity

Excerpt

The task given to the committee (Committee on the Use of Chimpanzees in Biomedical and Behavioral Research) by the NIH (National Institutues of Health) asked two questions about the need for chimpanzees in research: (1) Is biomedical research with chimpanzees “necessary for research discoveries and to determine the safety and efficacy of new prevention or treatment strategies?” and (2) Is behavioral research using chimpanzees “necessary for progress in understanding social, neurological, and behavioral factors that influence the development, prevention, or treatment of disease?” In responding to these questions, the committee concluded that the potential reasons for undertaking biomedical and behavioral research as well as the protocols used in each area are different enough to require different sets of criteria. However, the committee developed both sets of criteria guided by the following three principles:

1. The knowledge gained must be necessary to advance the public’s health;

2. There must be no other research model by which the knowledge could be obtained, and the research cannot be ethically performed on human subjects;

3. The animals used in the proposed research must be maintained either in ethologically appropriate physical and social environments or in natural habitats.

These principles are the basis for the specific criteria that the committee established to assess current and future use of the chimpanzee in biomedical and behavioral research (see Recommendations 1 and 2).