4.2.2 Animal Ethics

Question 1

What are the 3 Rs?

Answer 1

Reduction, Refinement, Replacement

Question 2

How do you Reduce the number of animals used in an experiment?

Answer 2

-improve experimental techniques
-improve data analysis techniques
-share information with other researchers

Question 3

How can we Refine the experiment? (cause less suffering)

Answer 3

-use less invasive techniques
-better medical care
-better living conditions

Question 4

How can we Replace animals?

Answer 4

-experiment on cell cultured
-use computer models
-study human volunteers
-use epidemiological studies

Question 5

Practical Advantages of using animals

Answer 5

-strict control over environment
-short reproductive cycles
-drugs have been developed that could otherwise not have been made and have benefitted animals and humans
-relatively small and easy to handle
-some animals have a similar brain structure to humans
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Question 6

Practical disadvantages of using animals

Answer 6

-human lives are more complex, brains are different
-some diseases have to be replicated in animals using drugs, so lack validity
-eg. thalidomide (morning sickness drug) showed negative effects for humans but not animals
-different genetic structure so not generalisable

Question 7

Ethical advantages of using animals

Answer 7

-pro speciesism suggests we should do whatever to protect our own species
-unethical to damage a human to study drugs, certain procedures can be carried out on animals
-drugs have been created which otherwise could not have been
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Question 8

Ethical disadvantages of using animals

Answer 8

-animals not in their natural surroundings, so therefore distressed
-animals are not sufficiently different from humans to be treated badly
-many animals feel pain
-some procedures require accessing and damaging parts of the brain
-speciesism suggests to outcomes of the experiments benefit humans and not animals