Charting Progress in Debate Over Medical Research With Animals

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/02/130207141655.htm

Feb. 7, 2013 — The scientific and ethical debate over the use of animals in medical research has raged for years, but perspectives are shifting, viewpoints are becoming more nuanced, and new initiatives are seeking alternatives to animal testing, according to a special report by The Hastings Center, "Animal Research Ethics: Evolving Views and Practices."

The report is available on animalresearch­.thehastingscenter­.org, a hub of educational information on the changing landscape of scientific, ethical, and policy issues on animal research.

These resources are the outcome of a project on the ethics of medical research with animals, which brought together people with different points of view and areas of expertise to share their knowledge and exchange ideas and insights. Participants included veterinarians, a neuroscientist studying Parkinson's disease, a legal scholar, bioethicists, and animal welfare advocates.

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The special report, published with the Hastings Center Report, contains commentaries from the participants that cite examples of changes under way that are improving the welfare of animals in research and in some cases replacing them with alternative models. Examples include recent restrictions on the use of chimpanzees in federally-funded research and a "paradigm shift" in toxicology testing that aims to replace animals with a process that uses human cells to study a chemical's "pathway of toxicity."

Other commentaries suggest opportunities for change, including ways that laws that govern animal experimentation can be amended to reduce unnecessary animal suffering and actions that researchers can take to reduce the number of animals needed for proposed experiments.

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