There are few who understand the uselessness of animal experimentation better than Patrice Green, M.D. Every day, working in the heart of Baltimore's inner city, she sees patients being turned away from drug rehabilitation centers because funds simply run out. At the same time, generously funded animal experimenters continue feeding illegal drugs to rats, mice, cats, and monkeys, yet have nothing to offer addicted men and women.

Fortunately, Dr. Green has been a leading proponent of nonanimal medical research for more than 20 years, and now teaches generation after generation of new doctors how to practice medicine compassionately. She supervises residents, teaches students in the ambulatory clinic, and serves on the Ethics Committee and the Medical Policy Committee at Union Memorial Hospital.

In her private practice, Dr. Green cares for many patients who are affected by poverty, unemployment, and preventable illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes, and hypertension. Many patients, she says, are very receptive to vegetarian diets because they want to lose weight, stop relying on prescription drugs, and reclaim their good health. And her enthusiasm is catching: her patients' children are often the first ones to pick up her brochures on health and nutrition, eager to try new foods and pass their finds on to their families.

Dr. Green has long supported higher ethical standards in medicine. In 1985, she participated in a sit-in that helped shut down the University of Pennsylvania's horrific baboon head injury laboratory.