Lecture 12 - Ethics, Biology and Psychology Flashcards
Describe the history of animals in research
- Long, complicated and dense
- Brief timeline:
- Dates back 3000+ years
- Record of animal use basically starts with Romans/Greeks. Mostly to answer anatomy questions, etc.
- Medicine really picked up in the Renaissance (“basic” stuff like blood flow, etc)
- Systematic use picked up in the Renaissance (1400 -> 1600ish)
- Cruelty to Animals Act (1876) = first introduction of ethical guidelines (UK first to introduce protection against animal cruelty)
- Benefits of animal use in biological/psychological research are pretty much inescapable
Describe UoN significant rules and guidelines for animal research
- Code of Research Conduct and Research Ethics
- Animal Research at Nottingham
- UK Research Integrity Office (UKRIO): Code of Practice for Research
- The Concordat to Support Research Integrity:
- UK Research and Innovation
- Universities UK
- Welcome Trust
- Many more
What are some general principles that underpin legislation for animal subjects?
- Supports the responsible use of animals as experimental subjects (language)
- When no other reasonable option exists
- Often for medicine – diseases and disorders of the nervous system
- Specific animals allowed to be use: dogs, cats, horses, pigs, rabbits, guinea pigs, ferrets, birds (e.g., chickens), fish (e.g., zebrafish), reptiles, mice, rats (use of monkeys/apes etc. outlawed for many years)
How should animal subjects be treated during research?
- Minimum number required to obtain valid use (power analysis)
- More than momentary or slight pain = under ANESTHESIA
- IF appropriate, the animal should be killed (HUMANELY*)
- Well homed – MINIMUM stress, pain or discomfort
- Not cheap e.g. rat in pet store £20, rats used in research £60 (e.g. transport, housing, facilities, euthanasia)
What are some historical benefits of animal use?
Medical advancements:
- E.g. to combat pandemics (AIDS / Polio / Covid-19)
- Understanding anatomy
- Understanding of cardiovascular & nervous systems (specifically)
Psychological advancements:
- E.g. understanding of sensorimotor systems
- Understanding of learning & memory systems
- Understanding of brain*behaviour interactions
- Understanding of social, attachment and developmental theory
- Understanding and treatment of disorders (e.g. Alzheimer’s)
Veterinary advancements
- Animals living longer, happier, healthier lives
How should we move forward with animal research?
- Heavily regulated
- Ongoing discussion
- Getting weird (e.g. German researchers to breed pigs for human heart transplants)
How have transplants benefitted from animal research?
- First successful transplant in 1954
- More than 50,000 people now alive thanks to organ donation and transplants (NHS, 2017)
- Transplants in 1904 (capture dogs off the street) vs 2024 (growing machinery ourselves)
How have humans been used in research historically?
- Experimented on poor people, blind participants, slaves, prisoners of war and the mentally ill
- High Royds Hospital is a former psychiatric hospital south of the village of Menston, West Yorkshire, England. The hospital, which opened in 1888, closed in 2003
- E.g. bloodletting, isolation practices, lobotomy and trephination
Describe UoN significant rules and guidelines for human participants
- Code of Research Conduct and Research Ethics
- WHO: Declaration of Helsinki (2006)
- UKRIO: Code of Practice for Research
- UK GDPR
How should human participants be treated during research?
- Minimum number required to obtain valid use
- More than momentary or slight pain = under ANAESTHESIA
- No long term damage
- Reward clearly needs to be worth any risk
- INFORMED CONSENT
Moving forward with human research
- Constantly updating ethical guidelines
- Hurdles on the horizon (e.g. who has access, how implemented, long term effects)
What are some ethical hurdles?
- Research often uses animal subjects
- Often done before birth or in early years
- Potentially unforeseen long-term consequences
- “It’s unethical to not evolve the human body” – Juan Enriquez
- “Press tends to underestimate ethics and overestimate abilities” – Ellen Jorgensen
Describe ethics in biological research
- Ongoing process
- Ethics continues to change
- Keep a dialogue
- Stay transparent
- Be kind
Describe the Neubauer twin experiments
- Peter B. Neubauer split up orphan twins, put them in different families, tested/observed
- Sealed until 60s
- Not very ethical
- But very academically interesting for genetic research
Describe contemporary gnaecology
- As with many medical practices devised in the 19th century, roots can be directly linked back to experiments conducted on slaves
- Improvements today e.g. rates of death during birth
Describe the Los Alamos Plutonium experiments
- Between 1945 – 1947, 18 people were unknowingly injected with plutonium during unrelated GP visits
- This research was conducted by the same lab which “snatched”, dissected and circulated the body of Cecil Kelley after exposure to lethal radiation - all without permission (Source: The Plutonium Files by Pulitzer Prize winning Eileen Welsome)
Describe the Tuskgee syphilis experiment (1932 - 1972)
- Individuals infected with Syphilis
- Lied to about treatment (placebos!)
- One of many studies where people have been unknowingly infected
- Fueled congress-lead legislation within the USA
Describe HeLa cells
- Unknowingly, had “immortal” (spontaneously regenerated) cells harvested and circulated (e.g. for vaccines and drugs)
- Regarded as a standing historical wrong by many authors
