CANCER: McCartney Gives $2M for Non-Animal Research

      In memory of his late wife Linda, ex-Beatle Paul McCartney announced Tuesday that he will donate $1 million to the Arizona Cancer Center at the University of Arizona and another $1 million to New York City's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, to be used specifically for cancer research not involving animal testing. Linda McCartney died of breast cancer in 1998 but not before facing an "'agonizing' moral choice" on whether to use treatments that had been tested on animals. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) President Ingrid Newkirk, who knew the couple through their work as animal-rights advocates, said McCartney made the donations so that others would not have to "agonize like they did." McCartney said, "I have given this money ... so that others may be given the chance to live without animals dying." Despite increased testing on tissue cultures, "federal law still requires a final test on a live creature, to check for toxicity and unforeseen side effects that weren't evident in the lab." Although both facilities, which helped treat Linda McCartney, participate in animal research, each has pledged to use the donation "in the spirit in which it was given" (Alaimo, Arizona Daily Star, 12/5).