SIR: I was interested to read B Harding's letter, in which he or she asks what Mr Bromley would think if aliens came down and used our ladies for medical research, like we use animals (Viewpoint, September 3).

Well Mr/Mrs Harding, let's get back to the real world.

If one of your nearest and dearest, maybe your wife, husband, mother, father or child, was suffering from a life threatening, or pain inflicting illness, and the only cure or comfort was a drug discovered through animal research - would you refuse permission for that drug to be administered?

I too care about animals and shed tears when I see them treated cruelly.

But, I care far less for a rat in a cage then I do about a loved one in a hospital bed.

Mr B Derbyshire, Ribchester Grove, Bolton.

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