use of non-human animals Flashcards
What animal models are most commonly used in animal research?
Mice (or rats). This is due to the introduction of transgenic mice in 1980
What is Tom Reagan’s critique for using animals in research in 1985?
Tom Reagan said that it wasn’t the fact that the animals suffer or are deprived during the use of animals in research. It is in fact that we are even allowed to use animals at all as our resources; they are not here for us to eat, manipulate or exploit.
What was Marti Kheel’s critique of using animals for research?
Marti Kheels in 1989 said that when medical students cut into a lab animal, they fundamentally cut themselves off from their connection with other forms of life
What is speciesism?
A form of discrimination which involved treating one species as morally more important than members of other species. It is usually the case that humans have greater moral rights than non-human animals
What did Richard Haynes claim in 2008?
He claimed that we should consider whether the benefits to the animal being used outweigh the costs to that animal, and that the decision should be made by animal welfare scientists using legal documents.
What is the issue with Richard Haynes’ opinion on use of non-human animals in research?
Having animal welfare scientists primarily decide whether the benefits outweigh the harms can be problematic - these experts are likely users of animals in research. Moreover, these experts are scientists. Some may argue this becomes problematic as science is a logical concept, whereas ethics is a distinct moral reasoning, therefore why should these scientists have the final say?
What are the issues with Simon Festing’s remarks on animal testing being remarkably effective?
Animal testing is not completely remarkably effective; the Thalidomide tragedy was not accurately predicted from animal studies. The animals only exhibited the same reaction when given doses 25-150 times the human dose. Therefore the animal studies weren’t enough to prevent the human harm from occurring.
This is the same for the TGN1412 trial; they used animals but the animals actually had a lower receptor affinity, etc. Therefore a different response was seen. It may be argued then that the animals were not effective in predicting the human response therefore we could have prevented any animal harm by not testing on them first.
What is the official justification for using animals in research?
Utilitarianism, e.g. for the greater good
What are some of the arguments against animal research?
Do animals only exist for human beings? Do you exploit animals because you think you are superior? If so, why would we be superior?
Using animals in research may be considered the equivalent to the Nazi experiments: “to animals, all people are Nazi’s”
Name some examples of benefits that animal research has allowed.
Immunotherapy and vaccine development - these were developed from studies in rats/mice.
Haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib) is a major cause of meningitis. A vaccine against the infection was developed in rabbit and mouse models.
Severe Acute Respiratory Sydrome Coronavirus - gene based vaccination research has yielded protective immunity against SARS-CoV in mice.
Name some examples of controversial tests that are used in animal research.
Draize Test - this is when a substance is administered onto a restrained animals eye or onto their skin
LD50 - this is when a substance is administered to a group of animals and the dose at which half of them die is recorded.
Testing to predict human response - we use sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value to determine what the potential human response may be. However these are not good indicators of human response, e.g. the Vioxx disaster had shown fewer than 1% people who took Rofecoxib had a heart attack but drug was still withdrawn. Even though PPV may have appeared positive in the pre-clinical stages, it caused harm in patients resulting in the drug withdrawal, therefore what was the point in subjecting the animals to harm.
What are the alternatives to animal research?
Microdosing Observational Studies RCTs Use human tissues, cells and genes Computer testing
How did the use of animals in research start?
In the 1930’s there was the introduction of sulfa drugs - one of them killed 107 people who used it. This prompted FDA to enshrine mandatory testing of new substances on animals. The Nuremberg Code and the Declaration of Helsinki have also promoted the use of non-human animal research.
What does the Declaration of Helsinki say about animal research?
It says medical research involving human subjects should be based in scientific literature, adequate lab and as appropriate, animal experimentation.
What does the Nuremberg Code say about animal research?
It presumes that human experimentation should be based on the results of animal experimentation
