Is the Ethical Appraisal of Protocols Enough to Ensure Best Practice in Animal Research

Animal use in biomedical research raises ethical issues, as its potential benefits for humans and other species collide with the interests of the animals used. Within the widespread and longstanding disagreement over animal experimentation, the mainstream view on which legislation is based seems to be that experiments with animals are only acceptable: a) when there is no alternative means to obtain the results; b) when animal suffering and animal numbers have been minimised; and c) if the expected benefits outweigh the expected harm. This paradigm is based on Russell and Burch’s tenet of the Three Rs, 1 but also David H. Smyth’s definition of ‘alternatives’, in which animal experiments should aim to meet “the essential needs of man and other animals”. 2,3