Mark Walport Quotes

Physiological experiment on animals is justifiable for real investigation, but not for mere damnable and detestable curiosity.

I want medical experiments on animals stopped. They don't do anything, and they don't work.

Most of the time, those who use animals in experiments justify that use by pointing to alleged benefits to human and animal health and the supposed necessity of using animals to obtain those benefits.

The problem with experiments has always been that human beings make the decisions on whether or not the animals have benefitted from the treatment.

It is time my colleagues got real. All British universities doing worthwhile research use animals, and, instead of hiding, they should be boasting of their achievements.

Guinea pigs are practically synonymous with experiments. Lab rats have become the workhorses of modern medicine. Genetics owes a huge debt to the humble fruit fly. There's almost no branch of the life sciences, in fact, that hasn't leaned heavily on one animal or another.

Everyone agrees that animals should not be exposed to unnecessary pain. But neither should scientists be hamstrung by the requirement to use anesthesia in every animal experiment that might cause pain.

It is inexcusable for scientists to torture animals; let them make their experiments on journalists and politicians.

Scientists should not do animal testing if there is any alternative, but subject to that, I would support it on grounds of the medical benefits.

An animal experiment cannot be justifiable unless the experiment is so important that the use of a brain-damaged human would be justifiable.

It is an incontrovertible fact that if we want to make progress in basic areas of medicine and biology, we are going to have to use animals.

Animal rights activists talk about cruelty and torture, some backing their assertions by publishing out-of-date photographs of 'experiments' banned long ago. This is a misrepresentation. The work we do is performed with compassion, care, humanity and humility. I have never seen an animal suffer pain.

Scientific men are under definite obligation to experiment upon animals so far as that is the alternative to random and possibly harmful experimentation upon human beings, and so far as such experimentation is a means of saving human life and of increasing human vigor and efficiency.

Vivisection is a social evil because if it advances human knowledge, it does so at the expense of human character.

Cats have nine lives. Makes them ideal for experimentation.

When I hear of anyone walking into a lab and walking out with animals, my heart sings.

Our success was mainly due to the fact that we stimulated the nerves of animals that easily stood on their own feet and were not subjected to any painful stimulus either during or immediately before stimulation of their nerves.

Experiments with animals have long been handicapped by our anthropocentric attitude: We often test them in ways that work fine with humans but not so well with other species.

Working in this industry, I have been exposed to so many products and now realize more than ever how cruel and unnecessary animal testing is.

I have no disagreement with the aims of anti-vivisectionists.

Scientists are supposed to study animals in a totally objective fashion, similar to the way we inspect a rock or measure the circumference of a tree trunk. Emotions are not to interfere with the assessment. The animal-rights movement capitalizes on this perception, depicting scientists as devoid of compassion.

The history of using mice to stand in for humans in medical experiments is replete with failures.

The community at large is under definite obligations to see to it that physicians and scientific men are not needlessly hampered in carrying on the inquiries necessary for an adequate performance of their important social office of sustaining human life and vigor.

When I became aware of how inhumane it is to test on animals, I made a commitment not to buy anything that was.

I hope that dog lovers around the world will support the Cruelty Free International global campaign to end the use of dogs in outdated and cruel experiments.