We are delighted to welcome a brand new member Grahame Morris MP, Chair of Labour’s Ethical Socialism, to EDM 263 and EDM 22’s call for properly moderated public scientific debates about the claims that animals can ‘predict’ the responses of human patients. Grahame Morris MP re-tweeted a ‘thank you’ from the new organisation Patients Campaigning For Cures , below, and we are truly delighted to be welcoming new MPs to this EDM’s up-to-date scientific position, illustrated for FLOE by the leading scientific Board in its field, Americans and Europeans For Medical Advancement (AFMA/EFMA).
@grahamemorris Thank you for signing #EDM22, our new campaign supports its vital call for public medical debate #CURE pic.twitter.com/OU1mkpfJiN
— Patients for Cures (@ScienceForCures) December 11, 2014
This question of the claimed predictive value of animal experiments for human patients is increasingly becoming the focus of leading scientific journals: in June this year the Editor in Chief of the British Medical Journal published ‘Editors Choice’ titled ‘How Predictive and Productive is Animal Research?‘ and concluded by citing the paper it quoted:
“If research conducted on animals continues to be unable to reasonably predict what can be expected in humans, the public’s continuing endorsement and funding of preclinical animal research seems misplaced”.
EDM 22’s debate conditions have been endorsed by Britain’s foremost human rights defence barrister Michael Mansfield QC – currently representing the Hillsborough families. The EDM’s call for debates is unique because a panel of judges will be present who will include experts from the fields of clinical medicine, complexity/chaos theory, philosophy of science, evolutionary biology, clinical research, drug development, and basic research. The debate conditions are specifically designed to achieve a scientific result which can be submitted as evidence in a wider legal action as well as to government bodies, in order to change now demonstrably outdated laws. The significance of this is in sharp contrast to the more casual ‘vote on line’ or show of hands at the end of previous debates.
ASK YOUR MP to sign this EDM, visit the facebook page to locate your MP quickly and send the template letter today!