Breeding contempt

摘要

Research using chimpanzees is under closer scrutiny than usual in the United States, with the Institute of Medicine scheduled to report next month on whether government funding for the work continues to be scientifically justified. So it is, to put it mildly, an unfortunate time for questions to be raised about a key research centre's ability and willingness to follow a 16-year-old moratorium on chimpanzee breeding. It is also a sensitive time for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland - the agency that funds the research on behalf of the US taxpayer - to be reluctant to answer key questions about its enforcement of the moratorium at the New Iberia Research Center (NIRC), near Lafayette in Louisiana.