Health

OHSU Board Approves Plan to Deemphasize—But Not Eliminate—Medical Center’s Monkey Research

Compromise comes after negotiations with the feds to turn the Oregon National Primate Research Center into a primate sanctuary came to nought.

By Andrew Schwartz
Oregon National Primate Research Center. (Mike Perrault)

After years of pitched debate over a matter of considerable moral and scientific weight, the Oregon Health & Science University oversight board on Monday took a significant step to deemphasize primate research at the Oregon National Primate Research Center.

The resolution, a compromise between skeptics and proponents of the center’s work, is broad in nature, setting parameters for OHSU leaders to make a comprehensive plan in the months to come.

It came after negotiations with the feds to turn the Oregon National Primate Research Center into a primate sanctuary came to nought.

These negotiations were launched six months ago, when the academic medical center, under pressure from animal rights groups and lawmakers, was looking for a path forward. But in the end, OHSU’s negotiators told the board, federal support to wind the center down was not going to be available in a sustained way.

So OHSU proposed to the board another path: It would create a comprehensive plan to make a hard pivot to research alternatives to animal research, while “substantially” reducing the primate population at the center by sending many to sanctuaries and limiting breeding, including ending a program to sell monkeys elsewhere.

At the same time, the primate center would continue monkey-based research in areas for which OHSU determines there are no good alternatives elsewhere.

The board unanimously supported the proposal, without making any alterations.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Andrew Schwartz

Andrew Schwartz

Andrew Schwartz writes about health care. He's spent years reporting on political and spiritual movements, most recently covering religion and immigration for the Chattanooga Times Free Press, and before this as a freelancer covering labor and public policy for various magazines. He began his career at the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin.

Willamette Week’s reporting has real-life impact that changes laws, forces action by civic leaders, and drives compromised politicians from public office.

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