The Ethics of Animal Research

The practice of animal research is at once familiar and strange. On the one hand, almost everyone knows that it is a regular and widespread part of modern scientific and medical research. Indeed, the idea of being a “lab rat” or “guinea pig” is frequently invoked and readily understood in contemporary discourse. On the other hand, the vast majority of animal research is conducted outside public view. Aside from oversight committees, government regulatory agencies, and research personnel, very few people will ever have firsthand exposure to what occurs in animal research laboratories. For most people, “access” is limited to two very different kinds of post facto news stories: (1) those about new drugs or medical devices that have shown promising results with animal subjects or (2) those exposing the (sometimes lurid) details of certain experiments or the abuse or neglect of animal subjects, or both, that come to light because of whistleblowers or undercover investigators or activists. The curious result of all this is that animal research is either hardly noticed at all or, when it is noticed, a source of considerable controversy. This book sets out to explore the issue as it manifests in this latter way. The chapters that follow offer many perspectives for analyzing and evaluating the ethical issues at stake in animal research. They aim to elevate the quality and tone of the debate while elucidating where progress can be made. In this introduction, I will (1) briefly describe the history and contemporary practice of animal research, (2) identify five important factors driving the scientific and ethical controversy, (3) pinpoint the moral crux of the debate, and (4) briefly introduce the individual chapters in this volume and explain how they contribute to the overall aims of the book.