Scientific Director of the International Association Against Painful Experiments on Animals

In the heated debate surrounding animal experiments, it is easy to forget that vivisection is just one method of research: there are others. Most crucial to the advance of medicine are human studies. Vital clues come from monitoring the health of large numbers of people whilst scanning techniques like positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance imaging enable researchers to investigate disease in individual patients. Further information can be derived from autopsy findings and studies with healthy volunteers. Much research can be carried out in the test tube, and countless in vitro systems have been devised to assess both the beneficial and harmful effects of drugs and chemicals. Then there are computer simulations of biological systems which aid drug design, medical research and education. The importance of non-animal methods, and the way in which they are used, can be gleaned from their contribution to the prevention and cure of disease. Combating the Major Killers Epidemiology is the technique which allows doctors to find the causes of ill-health so that preventive action can be taken. The method is based on comparisons: epidemiologist