ANIMAL EXPERIMENTS AND DONOR CARDS

Early day motion 342, tabled 27 October 1997 by Norman Baker (Liberal Democrat). Signed by 83 members.

That this House notes with dismay that 400,000 animals are killed every year just to provide body parts for medical research when many scientists agree that test-tube studies using donated human tissue give more reliable results, but that lack of availability prevents its widespread use; urges that donated human tissue be used wherever possible to save animals and achieve more accurate results; and calls upon the Government to establish and co-ordinate a national network of human tissue banks to overcome the shortage of suitable human tissue and to introduce a new donor card that gives the public the option of donating organs for transplantation and/or tissue for research.

Signatures by party: Labour 54, Liberal Democrat 19, Conservative 6, Labour/Co-operative 3, Unknown 1.