Letters

“Proposal for an Accord” & cost/benefit

The April 2012 edition of Animal People included an article entitled “Proposal for an Accord between Animal Advocates and the Biomedical Research Community.”  A number of responses to the proposal were published in the May 2012 edition.
Based on my experience with the science and ethics of animal research,  described in my 1998 book Human Models of Animal Psychology,  I support much of and welcome the “Proposal for an Accord.”
However,  there is one issue that I would like to examine and underscore because it has enormous implications,  and the document is arguably inconsistent in addressing it.  Most contemporary legislation and regulation of animal
research uses the language of cost/benefit.  Although at one point the “Proposal for an Accord” accepts that limited frame,  stating that “the use of animals is approved only when any harm done to the animals is greatly outweighed by the anticipated benefits of their use,”  at another it states,  “Compulsory guidelines would specify the types of experiments and levels of pain that would not be permissible regardless of potential benefit (emphasis added).” Read more