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New surgical techniques - such as for organ transplants and bone grafts - cannot be simulated on a computer or practised on humans. Blindness cannot be studied in bacteria, nor high blood pressure in tissue cultures.
The LD50 test is now prohibited by law in some Australian states and is only rarely practised in New Zealand. But before many medicines and farm chemicals can be registered for use here, the manufacturer must by law prove they are safe to use. This means in practice that they must provide toxicity information based on LD50 or similar tests carried out overseas.
The LD (Lethal Dose) 50 test is the best-known of the standard safety tests. It measures the dose which kills 50 per cent of a test population. Exposure is tested by mouth, skin contact, injection and inhalation.These days the LD50 and other safety tests are only used once the medicine or chemical has passed a battery of other tests on cell cultures and simple life