Should we limit medical testing on chimps?

The Institute of Medicine finds most experimentation on chimpanzees to be "unnecessary" — putting the onus on science to adapt

A young chimp awaits its turn in medical experiments: Recent studies found that a majority of retired lab chimps exhibit depression.
(Image credit: REUTERS/Jasper Juinen)

Chimpanzees, thanks to a genetic makeup that closely resembles a human's, have long served as test subjects in the field of medical research. But after nine months of heated deliberation, a new report from the Institute of Medicine (the health arm of the National Academy of Sciences) finds that behavioral and medical testing on primates is largely "unnecessary" and should be limited to extraordinary circumstances. In what's seen as a victory for animal rights groups, the National Institute of Health promptly accepted the IOM's recommendations on Thursday, suspending all new grants supporting lab testing on primates — even though such research has proven critical for medical advances in the past. Here's what you should know:

Why do we test on chimps?

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