More importantly, it seriously threatens the advancement of human and animal well-being. The complexities of the animal testing issue must be reinforced, for the complex truth has much greater value for humans and animals than does the simple lie. Animal testing provides a means of evaluating the effects of chemicals on animals. It is true that more efficient in vitro tests are developed each year. In vitro tests typically evolve from the scientist's discovery of the biological mechanism of disease, which originates in part from whole animal studies.
Pregnancy testing is an example.
The current wave of public interest in animal welfare has accelerated efforts to replace animal testing with in vitro alternatives. However, devotion to this cause must not give way to haste, lest public safety fall by the wayside. A fragile balance must be struck. At the Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing, in vitro methods are developed and their uses are encouraged in place of whole animal tests, but only to the extent that they are consistent with the public's health and safety. Since our medical knowledge base is imperfect, grasping the complex truth is necessary to promote the steady improvement of human and animal well-being with current resources.