HUMANE EXPERIMENTATION (cont)
REPLACEMENT
Replacement of live vertebrate animals with those lower on the evolutionary scale or the employment of non-animal techniques is encouraged. Those who oppose animal research in any form are convinced that the use of animals is not essential and that tissue culture, computer simulation and various other methods can replace animals entirely.
Although complete replacement of live animals will not be possible for many research disciplines, alternative methods have already replaced animals in many laboratories. Tissue culture, for example, has replaced animals in the isolation and propagation of many viruses. Computer simulation using previously obtained data from animal studies is now used in highly sophisticated cardiac function modeling investigations.