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CHAIRPERSON'S COLUMN  Recently, animal rights activists have been making substantial gains in obtaining philosophic and financial support for legislative and regulatory changes that will compromise the future of biomedical research. Their objective is to achieve laws and regulations limiting experiments using animals; the most extreme activist groups seek to ban all such research.Some organizations have been associated with animal thefts, vandalism to research facilities, and other destructive acts.¹ The AMA has been an outspoken proponent of biomedical research for over 100 years. The Association believes that research involving animals is essential to improve the health of the American people and opposes any legislation or regulations that would inappropriately limit such research. The AMA works closely with many organizations, such as the Incurably Ill for Animal Research, to advocate the use of animals in research and emphasize the importance of animal research to continued progress in understanding and treating