The Council of State puts an end to the long controversy over the experimentation on macaques and, after the stop last October,
definitively confirms the validity of the authorization issued by the Ministry of Health for the Lightup project of the Universities of Turin and Parma, which the goal of restoring sight to thousands of people who have lost it.
"We now hope for the best research success for the benefit of the advancement of knowledge and the health of patients", commented the two universities, while the LAV speaks of "vanished hopes of salvation for animals".
And announces new battles.
The project had been suspended once by the Council of State a year ago, then in May the TAR rejected the appeals of the animal rights activists giving, in fact, the green light again to the experiments, blocked by the administrative judges who today, in a collegial hearing, gave green light to experimentation.
"The sentence - declares Giuliano Grignaschi, director of Research4Life - definitively establishes that everything has been done in compliance with the regulations and the objectives of an experiment that is considered of great interest at European level".
The two universities are also satisfied: the ruling - they say - proves beyond any reasonable doubt the unassailable solidity and correctness on the ethical, technical-scientific and formal level not only of the project but also of the authorization process carried out by the competent bodies, Ministry of Health in primis.
The regret of Lav.
"The hopes of salvation are gone. We fought a battle for over two years, against the giants in favor of animal experimentation. A struggle with which we revealed what was happening in those laboratories, for this study authorized by the University of Turin, funded with European funds "say the animal rights activists.
"Today a sad juridical page of our country closes that could have been concluded in the bud years ago".
This is the first comment by the scientist and Senator for life Elena Cattaneo on the decision of the State Council authorizing the continuation of the LightUp project of the Universities of Turin and Parma, including a phase of experimentation on macaques.
"It is important that the reasons and rigor of the scientific evaluations proposed by the researchers, professors Marco Tamietto and Luca Bonini, prevailed over the propaganda".