Bioethics and Research Institutions
A first step toward establishing ethical guidelines for animal testing has been taken by institutions in the United States that fund research, such as the National Institute for Health, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Agriculture Department. Their policies are primarily set by the public in the form of political action initiated by their elected representatives. The directors and boards of these institutions consider the opinions of their constituents when deciding what types of research to support.
Private institutions such as the Howard Hughes Foundation and Rockefeller Foundations set their policies through committee discussion groups and professional panels that make recommendations to the directors of the respective foundations. Their opinions are reflected in the programs the foundations choose to fund.
Finally, private businesses and corporations that fund this type of research generally use a board or panel approach and approve of experiments within the guidelines set forth in both state and federal law, with an eye to accommodating the general will of the public.
In each of these three cases, an advisory committee is usually composed of senior researchers of a particular discipline—for example, biotechnologists to examine biotechnology questions—plus a philosopher to provide some historical depth and background, and members of interest groups or other public representatives. These panels make their recommendations based upon consideration of current circumstances as well as the potential future impact of the relative costs and benefits of the proposed research.
What sorts of issues does a panel consider when looking at a given experiment? With regards to animal testing for a new pharmaceutical, the dialog generally contains several crucial elements. The first step is to identify an experimental need. For example, a company may wish to test a new drug that would destroy fatty deposits in coronary (heart) arteries. The pharmaceutical company needs to conduct experiments to ensure drug safety and identify any possible side-effects for humans. Since federal law requires that any drug be thoroughly tested with an accurate experimental model to understand its effects before it is approved, one of the first questions to consider is how this may be best accomplished.
A variety of systems are available to model a drug’s behavior. These include microbial models (not suitable in this case); tissue models (the heart tissue model might provide very good information with no apparent negative effects); computer modeling (not always appropriate for finding actual data); and finally, animal models—which have the potential to provide the most accurate information about the drug’s likely effect on human beings.
The question of ethics arises during this process. In contemporary American culture, we tend to value human life above the lives of animals. Supporting this view are such culturally accepted practices as the consumption of certain animals as food, the production of drugs such as insulin from animals, and the pursuit of the longstanding hobbies of hunting and fishing for recreation and relaxation. Not everyone agrees that all of these practices are acceptable, however.
