Animal experimentation : biological, ethical and legislative elements

Abstract

Experiments on living animals are often criticised on the ground that they impose unjustified suffering of animals. The present paper is a review of biological, ethical and legislative elements that can help resolve issues concerning animal experimentation. First, the main stress reactions and signs of pain are presented. Since stress has consequences on several biological functions (such as energy metabolism), it must be limited in experiments - whose aim is not to study stress - by limiting constraints on animals and habituating them to experimental procedures. Second, whereas the place attributed by philosophers to animals varies from mere objects that can be used by humans to a sensitive creature willing to live, most of them accept animal experimentation to some extent because of a difference between animals and humans. Biologists have proposed rules to limit the use of animals in experimentation (3 R: Replacement, Reduction, Refinement) and tools to evaluate experimental protocols by taking into account the benefit of the research on the one hand and the constraints on the animals on the other hand. Third, national legislation has been set up to control animal experimentation. In France, scientists who want to experiment on animals must be licensed. In other countries, like in Canada or Australia, any experiment must be approved by a committee made of people involved in animal experimentation and not involved in  nimal experimentation.