Medical research on chimpanzees

I live 60 miles from the Alamogordo facility and never had the opportunity to "see" what's being done. I sit on the fence too. I'd have to know a lot more before I said absolutely NO. But I lean toward "no" until I know more.

Animal research is a subject I'm torn about. I do not agree with intentionally harming an animal, ie. putting substances in the eye to see how much damage is done, but I have also seen the progress that has been made in the field of medicine due to animal reasearch. Back in the early 70's I was suspended from school for participating in an anti-war demonstration at my high school. My father made me go to work with him at Walter Reed Army Medical Center where the exact nature of his work was never explained to me. What I do know is that I wandered into a room where several chimps were confined to chairs in cages with wires connected to their heads. This was a brain mapping study as I recall and something that could not be done on humans but the data provided by these chimps (who were not being harmed by the process) was valuable at the time. I also later learned that these chimps were only in those cages for a few hours that day. So, I'm not totally against animal testing...but then again, these particular primates are older and have most likely done their part. So, put me on the fence gewcew. I'm used to being there until I have more information.

moral minefield time gewcew. i don't know, it very much depends on what exactly would be done to these chimps and whether or not they would continue to have something like the lives they do now. the suggestion that some might be isolated sounds a bit dubious. you get animal rights issues that are easy - e.g. fur farming - then ones like this. personally i'd say no, chimps are too close to humans for any experiments that might make them suffer to be ethical and these ones have been through enough. if it just involved a few blood samples fine but obviously it won;t.