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Move to Curtail Chimpanzee Research Wins Maryland Support
Sen. Ben Cardin and Rep. Roscoe Bartlett advocate for chimpanzees.
By VARUN SAXENA Capital News Service Support for legislation to restrict the use of great apes in medical research is building on the heels of a report by the nonprofit Institute of Medicine which concluded that the use of chimpanzees is unnecessary in most circumstances. Maryland policymakers, it turns out, are among its chief proponents. Dr. Martin Wasserman, the former secretary of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, testified Tuesday in support of the Great Apes Protection and Cost Savings Act of 2011 at a meeting of the Senate Subcommittee on Water and Wildlife chaired by Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md. Chimpanzees are our closest relatives, but they are not great models for research because their genes are …
