Ethics of Research involving animals
II The structure and focus of the Report
The focus of this Report is on ethical issues raised by research involving animals. After a more detailed introduction (Chapter 1) and a description of the past and present context of the debate (Chapter 2), we present an outline of the ethical issues in Chapter 3. This chapter does not seek to explain or defend individual or collective positions of members of the Working Party but rather aims to provide the reader with an overview of the kind of questions that are posed by animal research. Since the degree to which animals involved in research experience pain, suffering and distress is central to the debate, we explore philosophical and practical aspects of assessing these states in animals (Chapter 4). Having provided this background we then describe a range of different scientific uses of animals which includes basic research to understand how animals develop and function (Chapter 5), the use of animals for the study of human disease (Chapter 6), genetic modification of animals in the study of disease (Chapter 7), the development of medicines and vaccines by the pharmaceutical industry (Chapter 8) and toxicological testing of potentially hazardous compounds for animals, humans or the environment (Chapter 9). We consider the scope and potential of methods that seek to replace, reduce or refine animal research In Chapters 11 and 12. After an outline of the regulatory context (Chapter 13) we resume the ethical discussion in Chapter 14 and present the views of the Working Party, inviting readers to compare their own judgements in the light of the Report with that of the Working Party. Our recommendations are presented in Chapter 15.
| Box 1: Consensus statement by all members of the Working Party (paragraphs 15.3–15.20) Research involving animals and other uses of animals It is important to consider the ethical issues raised by animal experimentation in the wider context of the other uses of animals in society, and to take into account:
The benefits of research involving animals Historically, animals have been used in a wide range of scientific research activities that have provided many benefits to society, particularly in relation to the advancement of scientific knowledge, human and veterinary medicine, and the safety of chemical products. Some of these advances might have been achieved by other means, although we cannot know this. Neither can we know what a world would look like in which animal research had never been undertaken. Hypothetically, there may have been other options which could have produced acceptable levels of knowledge and healthcare. These levels might have been lower than our current standards, but perhaps if society had deemed the use of animals for research as unacceptable, there would have been acceptance of greater limitations on scientific and medical progress. Alternatively, it is conceivable that equally good or better progress might have been achieved with other methods. The Working Party agrees that speculation about whether or not acceptable standards in basic and applied research could have been achieved in the past by means other than the use of animals is less important than the question of assessing the consequences of continuing or abandoning animal experimentation now. It is sometimes assumed that to end animal research would be to end scientific and medical progress, but such generalisation is unhelpful. The UK Government has responded to changes in the moral climate by introducing policies that have ended some types of animal research and testing in the UK. For example, the use of animals for the testing of cosmetic products and their ingredients, alcohol and tobacco has ceased. Similar policies are in place regarding the use of the great apes. Independent of the moral acceptability of research, the scientific costs and benefits of abandoning specific types of animal research need to be assessed on a case by case basis. On the one hand, the possibility of the emergence of new diseases may require a reassessment of whether the abandonment of specific types of research is still justified. On the other, scientific advances that could replace the use of animals in some areas may enjoin us to assess whether further policies should be introduced to terminate these uses of animals accordingly. The validity, usefulness and relevance of specific types of animal research, for example in relation to the use of animals for the study of human diseases, needs to be ascertained in each individual case. |