Md.'s Bartlett Opposes Invasive Research On Chimps

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) -- Maryland Rep. Roscoe Bartlett is sponsoring legislation to phase out invasive research on
chimpanzees.

Bartlett, a Republican, wrote about his opposition to research that harms the animals in an opinion page article Thursday in The New York Times.

Bartlett discusses his experience as a physiologist at the Navy's School of Aviation Medicine, where he invented a series of respirator support devices for space flight that were tested on primates.

Bartlett says he believed the research was worth the suffering inflicted on the animals at the time. But now he says such research no longer makes sense scientifically, financially or ethically, because of alternatives that have been developed.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)