scholarly journals Reviewing the Review: A Pilot Study of the Ethical Review Process of Animal Research in Sweden

Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 708
Author(s):  
Svea Jörgensen ◽  
Johan Lindsjö ◽  
Elin M. Weber ◽  
Helena Röcklinsberg
Keyword(s):  
Pilot Study ◽  
Animal Ethics ◽  
Review Process ◽  
Ethics Committees ◽  
Ethical Review ◽  
Benefit Analysis ◽  
Application Form ◽  
Legal Requirement ◽  
Animal Ethics Committees ◽  
Ethical Review Process

The use of animals in research entails a range of societal and ethical issues, and there is widespread consensus that animals are to be kept safe from unnecessary suffering. Therefore, harm done to animals in the name of research has to be carefully regulated and undergo ethical review for approval. Since 2013, this has been enforced within the European Union through Directive 2010/63/EU on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes. However, critics argue that the directive and its implementation by member states do not properly consider all aspects of animal welfare, which risks causing unnecessary animal suffering and decreased public trust in the system. In this pilot study, the ethical review process in Sweden was investigated to determine whether or not the system is in fact flawed, and if so, what may be the underlying cause of this. Through in-depth analysis of 18 applications and decisions of ethical reviews, we found that there are recurring problems within the ethical review process in Sweden. Discrepancies between demands set by legislation and the structure of the application form lead to submitted information being incomplete by design. In turn, this prevents the Animal Ethics Committees from being able to fulfill their task of performing a harm–benefit analysis and ensuring Replacement, Reduction, and Refinement (the 3Rs). Results further showed that a significant number of applications failed to meet legal requirements regarding content. Similarly, no Animal Ethics Committee decision contained any account of evaluation of the 3Rs and a majority failed to include harm–benefit analysis as required by law. Hence, the welfare may be at risk, as well as the fulfilling of the legal requirement of only approving “necessary suffering”. We argue that the results show an unacceptably low level of compliance in the investigated applications with the legal requirement of performing both a harm–benefit analysis and applying the 3Rs within the decision-making process, and that by implication, public insight through transparency is not achieved in these cases. In order to improve the ethical review, the process needs to be restructured, and the legal demands put on both the applicants and the Animal Ethics Committees as such need to be made clear. We further propose a number of improvements, including a revision of the application form. We also encourage future research to further investigate and address issues unearthed by this pilot study.

Tackling conservation/welfare conflicts in the management of wild animals

2002 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 36 ◽  
Author(s):  
James K. Kirkwood
Keyword(s):  
Review Process ◽  
Biological Diversity ◽  
Cost Benefit Analysis ◽  
Species Conservation ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Ethical Review ◽  
Benefit Analysis ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Ethical Review Process

During the last century there were two distinct and profound changes in attitudes to animals. First, it became widely understood that human activities and anthropogenic changes to the environment present a serious threat to biological diversity. In response to this many programmes to protect habitat and to conserve species have been launched. Second, advances in various fields of science led to a strengthening belief in many societies that a wide range of animals may have the capacity for consciousness and thus suffering. This has led to growing concern for the welfare of animals - the quality of their lives - and to the development of extensive bodies of welfare legislation in many countries. Concerns for species conservation and concerns for individual animal welfare do not always pull in the same direction. Around the world, conflicts are becoming commonplace between those who believe it can be justifiable to compromise the interests of individual animals in order to prevent species extinctions and those who do not. Such conflicts may be addressed and hopefully avoided or minimized through use of an ethical review process in which conservation benefits and welfare costs are carefully identified, considered and weighed in a cost/benefit analysis. A second function of this review process is to ensure that, where the decision is taken to proceed with a conservation programme that may adversely affect the welfare of some individuals, all necessary steps are taken to minimize these threats and their possible impacts.

The use of animals in research: counting the costs and the benefits

2004 ◽  
Vol 44 (11) ◽  
pp. 1079 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. D. Rickard
Keyword(s):  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Animal Ethics ◽  
Cost Benefit Analysis ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Ethics Committees ◽  
Benefit Analysis ◽  
Economic Gain ◽  
Animal Ethics Committees ◽  
The Cost ◽  
The Impact

The Australian Code of Practice for the Care and Use of Animals for Scientific Purposes requires Animal Ethics Committees to assess the merits of any research proposal involving the use of sentient animals. As part of that assessment they should make a judgment as to whether or not the costs to the welfare of the experimental animals are outweighed by the benefits of the predicted experimental outcome (i.e. conduct a cost–benefit analysis). This paper describes one approach that has been proposed to assist Animal Ethics Committees to take all factors into account when making this judgment. When agricultural animals are used in research the potential benefits are usually measured in terms of improved health and welfare or increased productivity when the research outcomes are applied to other animals reared in agricultural enterprises. When the aim of a project is to improve the health and welfare of the animals (i.e. ‘animal benefit’), the benefits are usually obvious and counting the cost is straightforward even if the impact on the animals under experimentation is quite extreme (e.g. death as an unavoidable endpoint in a vaccination experiment). Where the benefits accrue solely in terms of increased productivity or economic gain (i.e. ‘human benefit’), then balancing the costs and the benefits can be more problematical because people’s personal beliefs and their orientation towards animal welfare influence their assessment. Economists indicate that it is not increased productivity per se that generates value but consumption. Therefore, consumer perceptions of any adverse impact that gains in productivity have on the welfare of farmed animals can play a significant role in determining the ultimate benefit (value) of a particular piece of research with the sole aim to increase production and economic gain. This paper will explore some postulated relationships between productivity and animal welfare which could influence consumer preferences and hence the cost–benefit analysis.

Ethical Considerations for Common Mouse Models of Cancer (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seyed Mohammad Kazem Aghamir Sr ◽  
Fatemeh Khatami ◽  
Mahan Asadian Sr ◽  
Rahil Mashhadi ◽  
Behta Pakseresht Keshavarz
Keyword(s):  
Animal Welfare ◽  
Mouse Models ◽  
Animal Ethics ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Ethics Committees ◽  
Animal Research ◽  
Complete Analysis ◽  
Ethical Review ◽  
Animal Ethics Committees ◽  
Mouse Models Of Cancer

BACKGROUND Animal Ethics Committees (AECs) are concerning possibilities for public participation in the regulation of animal research. AECs are accountable for approving and monitoring research within Accredited Animal Research Establishments (AARE) (https://www.animalethics.org.au/animal-ethics-committees). In the way of making mouse models of cancer, several new considerations should be mentioned before the study design. OBJECTIVE To consider both personnel and animal welfare decisions at each stage of making mouse models of cancer, it is essential to have comprehensive information on the animal models. METHODS Three main cancer models are including; chemically induced mouse models, genetically engineered mouse models (GEMMs), xenograft nude mice, and Avatar. Some genetic changes in GEMMs are passing through next generations and not only do they have pain and suffering but also, they impose some environmental changes on mice. RESULTS Several phenotypes are required regarding the target of tumor model that expressed research are typically wisely investigated, but those that have an influence on the animal's welfare but have little or no effect on the disease procedure are often less carefully considered. CONCLUSIONS Complete analysis and regulations of animal welfare can offer beneficial information for researchers. This information is similarly essential to allow members of the institutional animal care and use committee to make necessary cost: benefit ethical review of animal studies. CLINICALTRIAL Not Applicable

scholarly journals There is more to the 3Rs than Replacement: Reduction and Refinement in animal experimentation

2014 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 34-36
Author(s):  
Siouxsie Wiles
Keyword(s):  
Animal Ethics ◽  
Cost Benefit Analysis ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Ethics Committees ◽  
Animal Experimentation ◽  
Ethical Framework ◽  
Benefit Analysis ◽  
National Centre ◽  
Animal Ethics Committees ◽  
Pain And Suffering

According to Wikipedia, the earliest references to animal experimentation appear in Greek writings of the 2nd and 4th Century BC1. Needless to say, we have come a long way in the intervening years. Animal experimentation is now regulated by law in many countries. ‘Animal ethics committees’, typically made up of lay people, scientists and vets, are required to undertake a cost–benefit analysis for proposed projects, weighing up the likely benefit to society against any harm and suffering animals may experience. Furthermore, the ethical framework first described by William Russell and Rex Burch in their seminal 1959 publication2 – the so-called 3Rs: the use of non-animal methods to achieve the same scientific goals (replacement), or where this is not possible, that researchers use methods which cause the minimum pain and suffering (refinement) while also obtaining the best information possible from the fewest number of animals (reduction) – is now also a legal requirement in many countries. Thanks in part to initiatives such as the UK's National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs), recent years have seen a massive increase in the number of techniques developed which aim to replace the use of animals in research, teaching and testing, an achievement which should be celebrated.

scholarly journals The importance of the Ethical Review Process (ERP) in Conservation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara de Mori ◽  
Linda Ferrante ◽  
Gregory Vogt ◽  
Simona Normando ◽  
Daniela Florio
Keyword(s):  
Review Process ◽  
Ethical Review ◽  
Ethical Review Process

Assessing the Search for and Implementation of the Three Rs: A Survey among Scientists

2009 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 297-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marlies Leenaars ◽  
Bart Savenije ◽  
Anne Nagtegaal ◽  
Lilian van der Vaart ◽  
Merel Ritskes-Hoitinga
Keyword(s):  
Laboratory Animal ◽  
Animal Ethics ◽  
Current Practice ◽  
Ethics Committees ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
Animal Science ◽  
Animal Ethics Committees ◽  
European Laboratory ◽  
The Three Rs ◽  
Laboratory Animal Science

A survey among scientists into the current practice of searching for Replacement, Reduction and Refinement (Three Rs) alternatives, highlights the gap between the statutory required need to apply the Three Rs concept whenever possible and the lack of criteria for searching for Three Rs alternatives. A questionnaire was distributed to 342 scientists (Federation of European Laboratory Animal Science Associations [FELASA] Category C and B individuals), of which 67 responded. These scientists are customers of the Central Animal Laboratory of Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre. The results indicate that there is room for improvement in searching effectively for the Three Rs: skills in searching biomedical databases for Three Rs alternatives are limited, knowledge of specialised Three Rs databases is very limited, and satisfaction on the availability and accessibility of Three Rs information is low. None of the respondents allocate budget for a specific Three Rs alternatives search, although 50% do spend, on average, two hours engaged in this search for each application to their animal ethics committees. The majority of the respondents expressed the wish that the search for alternatives could be easier and less time consuming, and prefer to achieve this through the service offered by specialists at the Central Animal Laboratory. On the basis of the results from the questionnaire, the 3R Research Centre was established, with the aim of providing services and support for bio-medical scientists, to improve the search for, and subsequent implementation of, the Three Rs.

Mapping French Laypeople’s Views on Nonhuman Animal Experimentation

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 272-290
Author(s):  
Maria Teresa Muñoz Sastre ◽  
Paul Clay Sorum ◽  
Etienne Mullet
Keyword(s):  
Cluster Analysis ◽  
Animal Ethics ◽  
Ethics Committees ◽  
Animal Experimentation ◽  
Nonhuman Animal ◽  
Experimental Protocol ◽  
Animal Ethics Committees ◽  
Factor Design ◽  
Acceptability Judgments

Abstract French positions regarding nonhuman animal experimentation were examined. A total of 163 participants were presented with 72 vignettes depicting an experimental protocol. They were composed according to a five-factor design: (a) the fate of the animal (e.g., was sacrificed for the purpose of further analyses), (b) environment in which the animal was raised, (c) main objective of the experiment (purely theoretical vs. therapeutic), (d) degree of pain inflicted, and (e) species involved (rabbit, coyote, or chimpanzee). Through cluster analysis of participants’ acceptability judgments, six qualitatively different positions were found. Four had already been described by observation of the functioning of animal ethics committees: Animals have Rights, Ethics in the name of Animals, Ethics in the name of Patients, and Ethics in the name of Science. Female participants held the Animals-have-Rights position three times more often than males. Male participants held an Ethics-in-the-name-of-Science position four times more often than females.

scholarly journals Ethical challenges in researching and telling the stories of recently deceased people

2020 ◽  
pp. 174701612095250
Author(s):  
Glenys Caswell ◽  
Nicola Turner
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Review Process ◽  
Extended Period ◽  
Ethical Review ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Conducting Research ◽  
Ethical Review Process ◽  
Deceased People

This paper explores ethical challenges encountered when conducting research about, and telling, the stories of individuals who had died before the research began. Cases were explored where individuals who lived alone had died alone at home and where their bodies had been undiscovered for an extended period. The ethical review process had not had anything significant to say about the deceased ‘participants’. As social researchers we considered whether it was ethical to involve deceased people in research when they had no opportunity to decline, and we were concerned about how to report such research. The idea that the dead can be harmed did not help our decision-making processes, but the notion of the dead having limited human rights conferred upon them was useful and aided us in clarifying how to conduct our research and disseminate our findings.

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