Abstract:
The involvement of animals in research procedures that can harm them and to which they are deemed unable to consent raises fundamental ethical dilemmas. While current ethical review processes emphasize the application of the 3Rs (Replacement, Reduction, and Refinement), grounded in a human-centered utilitarian ethical approach, a comprehensive ethical review also involves a harm-benefit analysis and the consideration of wider ethical issues. Nevertheless, to our knowledge, approaches are still needed to facilitate the integrative assessment and iterative revision of research designs to improve their ethical value or to identify cases in which using animals is irremediably unethical. Additionally, frameworks are lacking that explicitly include an animal-centered perspective into the ethical review process beyond welfare concerns, failing to cover broader ethical considerations (such as consent). In previous work we proposed an Animal-Centered Research framework (ACRf) comprising four animal-centered research principles (relevance, impartiality, welfare and consent) which could help researchers and ethical review bodies apprise research designs from an animal-centered perspective. This paper builds on and further develops our previous work by contextualizing the ACRf within the bigger picture of animal research ethical review and by illustrating how the ACRf could be operationalized within current ethical review processes. We contribute an extended framework that integrates the application of the ACRf principles within the ethical review process. To this end, we present findings from a theoretical case study focusing on the ethical review of a research protocol on the study of stress response in pigs. We discuss how our extended framework could be easily applied to facilitate a holistic approach to the ethical review process, and inform an iterative process of refinement, to support the development of research designs that are both more ethical and scientifically valid.
摘要:
动物参与可能伤害它们并且被认为无法同意的研究程序引起了基本的道德困境。虽然当前的道德审查过程强调3R的应用(替换,Reduction,和精炼),以以人为本的功利主义伦理方法为基础,全面的道德审查还涉及有害利益分析和考虑更广泛的道德问题。然而,根据我们的知识,仍然需要方法来促进研究设计的综合评估和迭代修订,以提高其伦理价值或确定使用动物不可挽回的不道德案例。此外,除了福利问题之外,缺乏明确地将以动物为中心的观点纳入伦理审查过程的框架,未能涵盖更广泛的道德考虑(如同意)。在以前的工作中,我们提出了一个以动物为中心的研究框架(ACRf),包括四个以动物为中心的研究原则(相关性,公正,福利和同意),可以帮助研究人员和伦理审查机构从以动物为中心的角度介绍研究设计。本文通过在动物研究伦理审查的更大图景中对ACRF进行语境化,并通过说明如何在当前的伦理审查过程中对ACRF进行操作,从而建立并进一步发展了我们以前的工作。我们提供了一个扩展的框架,该框架将ACRF原则的应用集成到道德审查过程中。为此,我们提供了一个理论案例研究的结果,该研究的重点是对猪应激反应研究方案的伦理审查。我们讨论了如何轻松应用我们的扩展框架,以促进道德审查过程的整体方法,并告知一个迭代的完善过程,支持更符合道德和科学有效性的研究设计的发展。