Animal experiments are supposedly necessary in order to make the products we use safe and to find new therapies for sick people. However, they are in fact not suitable for judging the effects and hazards of substances for humans. more

A staggering 2.69 million animals have been sacrificed in the name of science in Germany in 2008. Since recording began in 1989 the number of animals used in experiments decreased from 2.6 million in 1989 to 1.5 million in 1997, the lowest figure ever. Since then the number of animals used has risen dramatically. more

Today a lot of so called in vitro methods are available, test methods which are carried out in a test-tube and thus do not use living animals. These innovative methods of research deliver - in contrast to the animal experiment - reliable, easily reproducable results, and besides these tests are more sensitive, cheaper and faster than tests on the living animal. more

Dr. Bernhard Rambeck

Experimenting with animals is nowadays increasingly rejected, mainly for moral and ethical, but also for scientific reasons. My field of work - epilepsy research - is a typical example of the tendencies and developments in modern medical research towards dispensing with traditional animal testing. Even a decade ago, it was claimed that epilepsy research could only be carried out using the intact brain of living animals. Today, experimental epilepsy research means largely neither human nor animal experiments but in vitro studies - that is research with nerve-cells or brain-tissue preparations. more

By Prof Pietro Croce †

All living organisms – from bacteria to human beings – have certain similiarities. For everything that lives on Earth has certain chemical elements and biochemical compounds in common in its physical make-up. But simply combining chemical substances does not create an organism or a living being. more