Principles of Animal Research Ethics (Digital online) | Released: 12 Mar 2020

This volume is the first to present a framework of general principles for animal research ethics together with an analysis of the principles' meaning and moral requirements. This new framework of six moral principles constitutes a more suitable set of moral guidelines than any currently available, including the influential framework presented in the Principles of Humane Experimental Technique published in 1959 by zoologist and psychologist William M. S. Russell and microbiologist Rex L. Burch. While other accounts have presented specific directives to guide the use of animals in research, Tom L. Beauchamp and David DeGrazia here offer a set of general moral principles that are adequate to the task of evaluating biomedical and behavioral research involving animals today. Their comprehensive framework addresses ethical requirements pertaining to societal benefit-a critical consideration in justifying the harming of animals in research-and features a thorough program of animal welfare protection. In doing so, their principles bridge the gap between the concerns of the research community and the animal-protection community.

The book is distinctive in featuring commentaries on the framework of principles by eminent figures in animal research ethics from an array of relevant disciplines: veterinary medicine, biomedical research, biology, zoology, comparative psychology, primatology, law, and bioethics. The seven commentators-Larry Carbone, Frans de Waal, Rebecca Dresser, Joseph Garner, Brian Hare, Margaret Landi, and Julian Savulescu-scrutinize Beauchamp and DeGrazia's principles in terms of both their theoretical cogency and practical implications, evaluating their relevance to the medical and scientific professions. The range of ethical issues encompassed in Principles of Animal Research Ethics will be useful to professionals in the biomedical and behavioral sciences and will also appeal to individuals and scholars interested in bioethics, animal ethics, and applied ethics generally.

About the Author:
Tom L. Beauchamp is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Bioethics, Georgetown University. His research centers on biomedical ethics, animal research ethics, and the philosophy of David Hume. His books include Principles of Biomedical Ethics (with James Childress); A History and Theory of Informed Consent (with Ruth Faden); Standing on Principles: Collected Essays; Hume and the Problem of Causation (with Alexander Rosenberg); and five volumes of the critical edition of David Hume's Philosophy published in Oxford University Press's Clarendon Hume editions. From 1976-78 he drafted the bulk of The Belmont Report for the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects. He has been given the Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Research Ethics by Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research (PRIM&R); the Henry Beecher Award of the Hastings Center, New York; and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH).

David DeGrazia is Elton Professor of Philosophy at George Washington University (GWU) and Senior Research Fellow in the National Institutes of Health Department of Bioethics. DeGrazia's research focuses primarily on applied ethics and ethical theory. His scholarly work on animals addresses their moral status, their consciousness and cognitive capacities, and the ethics of using animals in research and for food. His article "The Ethics of Animal Research: What are the Prospects for Agreement?" has been reprinted in numerous anthologies. DeGrazia's books include Taking Animals Seriously (Cambridge University Press, 1996), Human Identity and Bioethics (Cambridge University Press, 2005), and Creation Ethics: Reproduction, Genetics, and Quality of Life (Oxford University Press, 2012). He was an editor through four editions of Biomedical Ethics (McGraw-Hill), a widely used bioethics anthology. In 2018 he was named a Fellow of the Hastings Center and the recipient of GWU's Distinguished Scholar Award.