Transcript Dan Lyons PhD - LAST

Animal Research:
Ethical and Democratic Context
Dan Lyons PhD
LAST, Dublin
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Dan Lyons PhD
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Policy Consultant for IAVS

Director, Centre for Animals and Social Justice

Honorary Research Fellow, Dept of Politics,
University of Sheffield

UK Political Studies Association: Best Thesis
in Government and Public Administration

Member of Ireland’s National Committee
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Dan Lyons
The Politics of Animal
Experimentation
9780230355118
www.palgrave.com
Structure of talk
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Ethical implications of ‘animal welfare’?
The challenge of ‘animal rights’
Determining right and wrong
Inherent/external limits on moral
capacities
Democratic solutions?
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Vance, RP (1992). JAMA 268;13: 17151719
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Foundations of ‘animal protection’
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Mainstream analytical ethics
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Downplays emotion and sentiment
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‘Scientific’ method
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Consistency with empirical evidence, e.g.
animal welfare science
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Human justice
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Basic/fundamental rights – negative duties
(to not torture, murder etc.)
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Secondary/civic rights – positive duties,
(‘distributive’ justice from social relations)
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Equal consideration must be given to
similar interests, e.g. in not being tortured
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Leads to Universal Declaration of Human
Rights
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The moral relevance of pain
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a difference in species is not in itself a morallyrelevant distinction
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the only relevant boundary is the limit of
sentience
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e.g. mice experience anxiety and depression
(Kalueff AV, Wheaton M, Murphy DL. ‘What's wrong with my mouse model? Advances and
strategies in animal modeling of anxiety and depression’. Behav Brain Res. 2007;179(1):1–18.
doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2007.01.023. PMID 17306892.)
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Argument from marginal cases
OPTION 1: If language/moral agency required for
ethical status….
Then experimenting on nonhumans means
experimenting on ‘marginal’ humans (R. Frey)
or
OPTION 2: If sentience or consciousness are the
criteria…
Then, all humans are protected plus all sentient
nonhumans
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Which guide to ethical
behaviour?
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Scientific approach based on reason, fairness
and consistent with empirical data
or
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‘religious and ethnic traditions that draw on an
array of sources such as canonical texts,
authoritative readings, overlapping (even
contradictory platitudes), community norms’
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Idealism and Reality
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Human behaviour deeply influenced by social
environment and individual variability
Moral progress emerges from interaction of
idealism and social ‘habit’
Ideal of ‘avoiding animal harm’ appears
consensual
‘Ought’ implies ‘make it so’ (M Wissenburg)
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Almost 360% increase over last 6 years (07-13)
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Research community has significant influence
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Animal research has weaknesses in translation
(Perel P, et al. 2007. BMJ 334:197-202; Pound & Bracken, BMJ 2014;348:g3387)
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Needs strategic scientific and political action
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Engage with public, social science and 3Rs
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Harm-benefit analysis of research proposals
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Animal research policy seminar - tinyurl.com/o36k3bd
[email protected]
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Stroke research references
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Strong AJ, et al. 1996. ‘The use of in vivo fluorescence image
sequences to indicate the occurrence and propagation of transient
focal depolarizations in cerebral ischemia.’ Journal of Cerebral
Blood Flow and Metabolism 16(3):367-77 .
Macleod MR, O’Collins T, Howells DW, Donnan A. 2004. ‘Pooling of
animal experimental data reveals influence of study design and
publication bias.’ Stroke 35(5):1203-8.
Macleod M. 2005. ‘What can systematic review and meta-analysis
tell us about the experimental data supporting stroke drug
development?’ International Journal of Neuroprotection and
Neuroregeneration 1:201
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