Focus: Mouse saves lives

6 years ago

The use of laboratory animals for medical experiments is increasingly under discussion and public support for animal experiments is shrinking. Alternatives are being explored under the motto 'replace, reduce and refine', but the number is hardly decreasing. Nearly half a million animals still die in laboratories in the Netherlands every year and another 400,000 are killed because they are left over from breeding.

Many scientists believe that the use of laboratory animals for fundamental research and for the authorization of medicines is inevitable. Focus shows animal experiments that scientists believe are really necessary. What are the considerations made for the use of animals in medical experiments? How far is research on human organs grown outside the body? Will they make some of the animal experiments superfluous in the near future?

To the broadcast (in Dutch)