Abstract
Simple SummaryNew tools, allowing scientists to make precise changes to mammal genomes, have made possible future increased use of larger mammals in biomedical research, such as primates, pigs, and dogs. This paper addresses ethical issues that are raised by using larger mammals instead of smaller ones in this research. Because scientists who use animals in research follow strict guidelines, we first examine what those guidelines suggest for using larger mammals. We then consider what philosophers, who write about the ethics of animal use, consider as the important questions in evaluating which (if any) animals are acceptable to use in research. We find that philosophical perspectives have typically been interested in the question of when or if animal use is justified, while biomedical research guidance has assumed that animal use is justified but defined specific limits to that use. To address directly the ethical questions that arise in the practice of biomedical research in selecting which animals to use, we consider an approach to ethics that is focused on character and living well (or flourishing). This paper is valuable to society in drawing attention to the ethical questions, rather than merely the scientific issues, that are important in selecting which animals to use in biomedical research.Recent developments in genome editing tools, along with limits in the translational potential of rodent models of human disease, have spurred renewed biomedical research interest in large mammals like nonhuman primates, pigs, and dogs. Such scientific developments raise ethical issues about the use of these animals in comparison with smaller mammals, such as mice and rats. To examine these ethical questions, we first consider standard (or “orthodox”) approaches, including ethics oversight within biomedical research communities, and critical theoretical reflections on animal research, including rights-based and utilitarian approaches. We argue that oversight of biomedical research offers guidance on the profession’s permitted uses of animals within a research setting and orthodox approaches to animal ethics questions when and whether animals should be used in biomedicine; however, neither approach sufficiently investigates the nuances of ethical practices within the research setting. To fill this lacuna, we consider a virtue ethical approach to the use of specific animal models in biomedicine. From this perspective, we argued that limitations on flourishing for large mammals in a research setting, as well as potential human-animal bonds, are two sources of likely ethical tensions in animal care and use in the context of larger mammals.
Highlights
If scientists can substitute the use of 10 genome-edited monkeys for the use of 1000 genome-edited mice in a search for a treatment for a devastating neurological disorder, should they do so? What if the use of monkeys offers a more promising route to such a discovery? Questions about the tradeoffs in using different types of animals as models for human disease raise important issues of relative animal moral status, comparative welfare, and the virtues of science
We have argued that while responsible conduct of research (RCR) delimits boundaries to permissible research and the orthodox approaches to animal ethics question these boundaries on the basis of specific moral principles, virtue ethics looks to individual research contexts and their implications for human and animal flourishing in assessing the tradeoff
Rights-based and utilitarian approaches to animal ethics bring wider moral theory to bear in questioning the ethical presumptions of the RCR framework and engage the tradeoff as a justificatory question about when and whether certain animals may be used in harmful research endeavors
Summary
If scientists can substitute the use of 10 genome-edited monkeys for the use of 1000 genome-edited mice in a search for a treatment for a devastating neurological disorder, should they do so? What if the use of monkeys offers a more promising route to such a discovery? Questions about the tradeoffs in using different types of animals as models for human disease raise important issues of relative animal moral status, comparative welfare, and the virtues of science. To examine ethical questions around such a tradeoff in the use of animals in research, we turn first to the standard (or “orthodox”) approaches, which include, on one hand, ethics oversight within biomedical research communities, and, on the other hand, critical theoretical reflections on animal research, including rights-based and utilitarian approaches While each of these perspectives has something important to offer in considering whether and when to make tradeoffs between animal models, we identify a lacuna left open by the standard dialectic involving the mentioned approaches. Oversight of biomedical research offers guidance on the profession’s permitted uses of animals within a research setting and orthodox approaches to animal ethics questions when and whether animals should be used in biomedicine; neither approach investigates sufficiently the nuances of ethical practices within the research setting To fill this lacuna, we consider how a virtue ethical approach to the use of specific animal models in biomedicine could add to the ethical dialogue. Before we approach these issues, we need to say more about why a shift to increased uses of larger mammals may be on the horizon for biomedicine
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