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Ethical and Animal Welfare Considerations in Relation to Species Selection for Animal Experimentation

SIMPLE SUMMARY: When making a choice of species for animal experimentation we must balance its suitability as a model for human medicine against the potential harms to the animals both from the procedures and the quality of their lifetime experience. The capacity to experience pain may be similar in...

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Autor principal: Webster, John
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4494423/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26479009
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani4040729
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author Webster, John
author_facet Webster, John
author_sort Webster, John
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description SIMPLE SUMMARY: When making a choice of species for animal experimentation we must balance its suitability as a model for human medicine against the potential harms to the animals both from the procedures and the quality of their lifetime experience. The capacity to experience pain may be similar in mammals, birds and fish. The capacity to suffer from fear is governed more by sentience than cognitive ability, so it cannot be assumed that rodents or farm animals suffer less than dogs or primates. I suggest that it is unethical to base the choice of species for animal experimentation simply on the basis that it will cause less distress within society. ABSTRACT: Ethical principles governing the conduct of experiments with animals are reviewed, especially those relating to the choice of species. Legislation requires that the potential harm to animals arising from any procedure should be assessed in advance and justified in terms of its possible benefit to society. Potential harms may arise both from the procedures and the quality of the animals’ lifetime experience. The conventional approach to species selection is to use animals with the “lowest degree of neurophysiological sensitivity”. However; this concept should be applied with extreme caution in the light of new knowledge. The capacity to experience pain may be similar in mammals, birds and fish. The capacity to suffer from fear is governed more by sentience than cognitive ability, so it cannot be assumed that rodents or farm animals suffer less than dogs or primates. I suggest that it is unethical to base the choice of species for animal experimentation simply on the basis that it will cause less distress within society. A set of responsibilities is outlined for each category of moral agent. These include regulators, operators directly concerned with the conduct of scientific experiments and toxicology trials, veterinarians and animal care staff; and society at large.
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spelling pubmed-44944232015-09-30 Ethical and Animal Welfare Considerations in Relation to Species Selection for Animal Experimentation Webster, John Animals (Basel) Article SIMPLE SUMMARY: When making a choice of species for animal experimentation we must balance its suitability as a model for human medicine against the potential harms to the animals both from the procedures and the quality of their lifetime experience. The capacity to experience pain may be similar in mammals, birds and fish. The capacity to suffer from fear is governed more by sentience than cognitive ability, so it cannot be assumed that rodents or farm animals suffer less than dogs or primates. I suggest that it is unethical to base the choice of species for animal experimentation simply on the basis that it will cause less distress within society. ABSTRACT: Ethical principles governing the conduct of experiments with animals are reviewed, especially those relating to the choice of species. Legislation requires that the potential harm to animals arising from any procedure should be assessed in advance and justified in terms of its possible benefit to society. Potential harms may arise both from the procedures and the quality of the animals’ lifetime experience. The conventional approach to species selection is to use animals with the “lowest degree of neurophysiological sensitivity”. However; this concept should be applied with extreme caution in the light of new knowledge. The capacity to experience pain may be similar in mammals, birds and fish. The capacity to suffer from fear is governed more by sentience than cognitive ability, so it cannot be assumed that rodents or farm animals suffer less than dogs or primates. I suggest that it is unethical to base the choice of species for animal experimentation simply on the basis that it will cause less distress within society. A set of responsibilities is outlined for each category of moral agent. These include regulators, operators directly concerned with the conduct of scientific experiments and toxicology trials, veterinarians and animal care staff; and society at large. MDPI 2014-12-03 /pmc/articles/PMC4494423/ /pubmed/26479009 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani4040729 Text en © 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Webster, John
Ethical and Animal Welfare Considerations in Relation to Species Selection for Animal Experimentation
title Ethical and Animal Welfare Considerations in Relation to Species Selection for Animal Experimentation
title_full Ethical and Animal Welfare Considerations in Relation to Species Selection for Animal Experimentation
title_fullStr Ethical and Animal Welfare Considerations in Relation to Species Selection for Animal Experimentation
title_full_unstemmed Ethical and Animal Welfare Considerations in Relation to Species Selection for Animal Experimentation
title_short Ethical and Animal Welfare Considerations in Relation to Species Selection for Animal Experimentation
title_sort ethical and animal welfare considerations in relation to species selection for animal experimentation
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4494423/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26479009
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ani4040729
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