Biotechnology: An answer to alternatives for animal model testings

摘要

Following Peter Singer's version of Animal Liberation and the movement of animal rights activists, there has been a resurgence of new and alternate testing procedures for toxicological evaluation. Scientists and researchers have long been involved in the search of alternate testing methods; however, the regulatory toxicologists, FDA and EPA of several countries do not accept in vitro methods as a substitute for safety tests or alternate methods. This is because the new products are for human consumption. Extrapolating the in vitro methods to animal models is therefore not always acceptable. This review discusses issues raised by activists and the available scientific technologies which could serve as alternate methods for toxicological evaluation.