The most recent COVID-19 pandemic has shown us the importance of vaccines. Historically, vaccines have helped provide a layer of protection from many infectious diseases like Polio, Influenza, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis A, and many more. However, the ethical concerns regarding vaccines surround how vaccines are researched. The method of using animal models for research has raised the question of whether or not it is ethical. Some of the most common animal models used in research would be mice, rats, chickens, and many more. Using animals can help researchers better understand how illness develops, the effects of certain treatments, or how it can be prevented. For years, animal use has been the frontline of many experiments when researching vaccines. So the question is should we allow animal use for research to produce vaccines to save millions of individuals from infectious diseases?
The paper Ethical and Scientific Consideration Regarding Animal Testing and Research focuses on the three Rs, reduction, refinement, and replacement of animal use. Replacement is finding ways to possibly avoid or replace animal use. Reduction focuses on lowering the number of animals used for the test and avoiding wasting animals. Finally, refinement is finding ways to reduce suffering and increase the quality of life for these animals. In the paper, it emphasized that animals have very similar responses to pain and suffering as humans. It has been shown that animals share similar genetics, and physiological and neurological components as humans therefore, they would experience pain the same way. Many previous scientific studies show that anxiety disorder like PTSD has been shown in animals like chimpanzees. Fear is a physiological marker that has been reported in animals that have been used in research like rats, dogs, and many more (Ferdowsian, H. R., & Beck, N., 2011). This is important to consider when talking about using animals for research because it shows how animals experience the same pain and suffering as humans.
Animals are one of the easiest ways to see the effect of vaccines without testing them in humans. Adopting the 3 R’s can slowly limit the number of animals used in research and potentially one day find a way to completely eliminate animal use. So the question to consider is, given what we know about animal pain capacity, should research continue to use animals for research of vaccines if it can save millions of individuals from dying from infectious diseases?
Ferdowsian, H. R., & Beck, N. (2011). Ethical and scientific considerations regarding animal testing and research. PloS one, 6(9), e24059.
Such an interesting article! I think it is ethical to use animals for research of vaccines because it has a good cause even though sometimes data from animals isn't exact in humans. Do you think that it is unethical to test animals for cosmetics? According to Kabene & Baadel cosmetic products caused toxicity, eye and skin irritation, unwanted gene mutations (Kabene & Baadel, 2019). Some alternatives to animal testing can be using a computer simulation, stem cells, and 3D images.
ReplyDeleteKabene, S., & Baadel, S. (2019). Bioethics: a look at animal testing in medicine and cosmetics in the UK. Journal of medical ethics and history of medicine, 12, 15. https://doi.org/10.18502/jmehm.v12i15.1875