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The Ethical Challenges of Animal Research

Honoring Henry Beecher’s Approach to Moral Problems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 September 2015

HOPE R. FERDOWSIAN  and
JOHN P. GLUCK
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Abstract:

In 1966, Henry K. Beecher published an article entitled “Ethics and Clinical Research” in the New England Journal of Medicine, which cited examples of ethically problematic human research. His influential paper drew attention to common moral problems such as inadequate attention to informed consent, risks, and efforts to provide ethical justification. Beecher’s paper provoked significant advancements in human research policies and practices. In this paper, we use an approach modeled after Beecher’s 1966 paper to show that moral problems with animal research are similar to the problems Beecher described for human research. We describe cases that illustrate ethical deficiencies in the conduct of animal research, including inattention to the issue of consent or assent, incomplete surveys of the harms caused by specific protocols, inequitable burdens on research subjects in the absence of benefits to them, and insufficient efforts to provide ethical justification. We provide a set of recommendations to begin to address these deficits.

Keywords

Henry K. BeecherCambridge Declaration of Consciousnessassent or dissent in animal subjectsanimal researchanimal experimentation
Type
Special Section: Moving Forward in Animal Research Ethics
Information
Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics , Volume 24 , Issue 4 , October 2015 , pp. 391 - 406
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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References

Notes

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