The ethics of research involving animals - Nuffield Council on ...
The ethics of research involving animals - Nuffield Council on ...
The ethics of research involving animals - Nuffield Council on ...
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T h e e t h i c s o f r e s e a r c h i n v o l v i n g a n i m a l s<br />
their <str<strong>on</strong>g>research</str<strong>on</strong>g>. This practice disturbed many <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> their c<strong>on</strong>temporaries and c<strong>on</strong>cern about the<br />
suffering <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> experimental <str<strong>on</strong>g>animals</str<strong>on</strong>g> increased. <str<strong>on</strong>g>The</str<strong>on</strong>g>re was also oppositi<strong>on</strong> to practices which<br />
involved the death <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> an animal simply to illustrate a previously known scientific c<strong>on</strong>cept:<br />
for example, in the 17th century, the physician Robert Boyle repeatedly dem<strong>on</strong>strated<br />
respirati<strong>on</strong> to interested audiences by placing an animal in a bell jar, which was then<br />
depleted <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> air by a pump, causing the animal to suffocate. 9<br />
2.6 C<strong>on</strong>cern was expressed in different ways. For example, Alexander Pope published the essay<br />
Against Barbarity to Animals in an English daily newspaper in 1713. William Hogarth’s<br />
engravings, entitled <str<strong>on</strong>g>The</str<strong>on</strong>g> Four Stages <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> Cruelty, were published as inexpensive reprints in<br />
1751 and enjoyed c<strong>on</strong>siderable popularity. Samuel Johns<strong>on</strong> denounced animal experiments<br />
in 1758 with a polemic published in the weekly news journal <str<strong>on</strong>g>The</str<strong>on</strong>g> Idler. While most<br />
c<strong>on</strong>tributi<strong>on</strong>s focused <strong>on</strong> animal suffering, there were also fears that lack <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> respect for<br />
<str<strong>on</strong>g>animals</str<strong>on</strong>g> would corrupt humans. Thus Thomas Percival expressed in A Father’s Instructi<strong>on</strong>s in<br />
1789: ‘Cruelty…will steal your heart and every generous principle <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> your nature will be<br />
subverted’. 10<br />
2.7 During the 19th century there was a dramatic increase in scientific explorati<strong>on</strong> in Britain and<br />
elsewhere. <str<strong>on</strong>g>The</str<strong>on</strong>g> study <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> evoluti<strong>on</strong>, and the natural sciences, <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g>ten involved animal <str<strong>on</strong>g>research</str<strong>on</strong>g>.<br />
In France, a traditi<strong>on</strong> <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> experimental physiology, <str<strong>on</strong>g>involving</str<strong>on</strong>g> large numbers <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> sentient<br />
<str<strong>on</strong>g>animals</str<strong>on</strong>g>, was initiated by Françoise Magendie (1783–1855) and his most famous pupil Claude<br />
Bernard (1813–78). In Germany in 1854, the visiting British journalist George Lewes observed<br />
‘extensive apparatus and no end <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> frogs’. 11<br />
2.8 Am<strong>on</strong>g other things, the substantial expansi<strong>on</strong> <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> the middle classes in Victorian Britain, and<br />
increasing amounts <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> leisure time, c<strong>on</strong>tributed to growing c<strong>on</strong>cerns for animal suffering<br />
am<strong>on</strong>g lay people and scientists. Marshall Hall (1790–1857), a physician and noted<br />
physiologist, supported animal <str<strong>on</strong>g>research</str<strong>on</strong>g> but stated ‘Unhappily… the subjects <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> animal<br />
physiology are sentient, and every experiment is attended by pain and suffering.’ 12<br />
Presaging later systems <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> regulati<strong>on</strong>, Hall set out five guiding principles <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> animal <str<strong>on</strong>g>research</str<strong>on</strong>g><br />
to stimulate debate in the scientific community:<br />
i) the lack <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> an alternative;<br />
ii) a clear objective;<br />
iii) the avoidance <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> repetiti<strong>on</strong> <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> work;<br />
iv) the need to minimise suffering; and<br />
v) full and detailed publicati<strong>on</strong> <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> the results. 13<br />
CHAPTER 2 THE CONTEXT OF ANIMAL RESEARCH: PAST AND PRESENT<br />
2.9 In Britain, experimental physiology, which was the main form <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> medical <str<strong>on</strong>g>research</str<strong>on</strong>g> at that<br />
time, was relatively underdeveloped by comparis<strong>on</strong> with the rest <str<strong>on</strong>g>of</str<strong>on</strong>g> Europe. 14 In 1863 an<br />
9 See Thomas K (1996) Man and the Natural World, Changing attitudes in England 1500–1800 (Oxford: Oxford University Press).<br />
See also a well-known painting by Joseph Wright from 1768 showing such an experiment being c<strong>on</strong>ducted, available at:<br />
http://www.nati<strong>on</strong>algallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/Collecti<strong>on</strong>Publisher.woa/wa/work?workNumber=NG725. Accessed<br />
<strong>on</strong>: 12 Apr 2005.<br />
10 See also Shakespeare’s Cymbeline Act 1, scene 5: ‘your highness shall from this practice but make hard your heart’; Dunlop<br />
RH and Williams DJ (1996) Bio<str<strong>on</strong>g>ethics</str<strong>on</strong>g>, animal experimentati<strong>on</strong> and sentience, in Veterinary Medicine: An illustrated history<br />
(St. Louis, MO: Mosby), Chapter 32.<br />
11 Wils<strong>on</strong> AN (2003) <str<strong>on</strong>g>The</str<strong>on</strong>g> Victorians (New York: W. W. Nort<strong>on</strong> & Company).<br />
12 In Dunlop RH and Williams DJ (1996) Bio<str<strong>on</strong>g>ethics</str<strong>on</strong>g>, animal experimentati<strong>on</strong> and sentience, in Veterinary Medicine: An illustrated<br />
history (Mosby), Chapter 32.<br />
13 Rupke NA (Editor) (1987) Vivisecti<strong>on</strong> in Historical Perspective (L<strong>on</strong>d<strong>on</strong> and New York: Cro<strong>on</strong>-Helm).<br />
14 Radford M (2001) Animal Welfare Law in Britain: Regulati<strong>on</strong> and resp<strong>on</strong>sibility (Oxford: Oxford University Press), p67.<br />
17