Consideration related to animal ethics

1. … Human truths, however valuable they may seem, are
always open to challenge, to revision, to
refinement, to refutation, to repeal. Only the quest
is eternal.
- A. Geuŕard (1954)

2. Russell and Burch
The Principles of Humane Experimental Technique, 1959
• Replacement
• Reduction
• Refinement

3. Jane Goodall, 2001
In Discussing Animal Research
“I believe that more and more people are becoming
aware that to use animals thoughtlessly, without any
anguish or making an effort to find another way
diminishes us as human beings.”

4. Animal Welfare
• The need
– To have adequate food
– Access to fresh water
• To be
– Pain and distress free
– Free of anxiety and fear
– Express normal behavior, e.g., hiding, grooming

5. Animals in Research – Comparison
of U.S. and Europe
United States Europe
Training Variable – hours to days Weeks
Ascites Letter from NIH – but not yet 10 years ago
IACUC Quality of science, then pain &
distress
Risk vs. benefit
3Rs
Intrinsic value

6. Where Am I?
• Responsibility to improve humankind
• Responsibility for the environment and thus a
responsibility for animals.
• Reverence for life

7. Therefore, we should do all we can to
eliminate or minimize pain and distress, but
the use of animals in medicine is both
necessary and appropriate.

8. The Program: Chemical Knowledge
• NAS (1984) – 78% of HPV chemicals had less than
minimal toxicology data
• EDF (1997) – 71% of HPV chemicals lack minimum
data
• CMA/ACC (1997) – 20% of HPV chemicals have basic
hazard data
• EPA (1998) – less than 10% of HPV chemicals have
minimum health/ecotox data

9. Definitions
• HPV – high production chemicals - > 1 million
lbs/year ~ 3000 chemicals
• Minimum Tox Data – Acute, subchronic, genotox,
reprotox, teratogenicity (OECD, SIDS)

10. The Problem – Animal Use
• HPV program
• Endocrine disruptors
• Pesticides
• Children’s health
• EU White Paper

11. The CAAT Response
TestSmart
Laboratory for Molecular Toxicogenomic and Proteomics
• Use archived materials from HPV testing – NTP
• Utilize NTP methods for extraction of mRNA
• Develop fundamental bioinformatics for large relational
database
• Public accessability

12. The Troubled Middle/The Silent
Middle

13. The extreme positions are minorities with views that
are irreconcilably opposed. One cannot expect
discussion when one see animal use as a holocaust
and those that think animal use raises no moral
issues.
Economist, 1996

14. Animals in Research
The issue for the public is:
– Accountability
– Pain and distress

15. Acceptance of Animals in Biomedical
Research
Okay to use 75-80%
If pain part of protocol? decreases to less than 50%

16. Animals in Research
The issues for the scientific community
– Increase effectiveness of IACUC’s
– Further enhance standard of care
– Deal with the calumny

17. Calumny
Is the deliberate, false, malicious representation of
reality. It is designed to manipulate the truth so as
to injure.

18. Calumny
• Is not just lying or telling an untruth
• It does not deny the truth, it misuses the truth and
thus sounds reasonable and plausible – thus it is
effective and destructive

19. “Calumny is the act of fundamental and
comprehensive disrespect for the basic
honor and dignity of all human beings”
W.S. Green - 2001

20. Obligations in the Face of Calumny
• Intellectual persistence: Must challenge the
information and interpretations
• Leadership: The responsibility of the scientific
community

21. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions:
Role for History
Each of them necessitated the community’s rejection of one time-
honored scientific theory in favor of another incompatible with
it. Each produced a consequent shift in the problems available
for scientific scrutiny and in the standards by which the
profession determined what should count as an admissible
problem or as a legitimate problem-solution. And each
transformed the scientific imagination in ways that we shall
ultimately need to describe as a transformation of the world
within which scientific work was done. Such changes, together
with the controversies that almost always accompany them,
are the defining characteristics of scientific revolutions.