#standard #ethics #review #improve #animal #welfare #research
Designed a veterinary framework to integrate specific principles such as relevance, impartiality, welfare and consent into existing processes to ensure practices are ethical.
In an effort to enrich ethical practices in the animal research, a veterinary team of researchers has proposed a new framework called Animal-Centered Research (ACRf), which promises to revolutionize the ethical review process in studies involving non-human living beings. This framework is designed to integrate specific ethical principles (relevance, impartiality, welfare and consent) within existing ethical review processes, ensuring that research designs fully consider animal welfare.
The ACRf not only focuses on applying a cost-benefit analysis and evaluating the direct impact on animal welfare, but also encourages researchers to consider animal consent in a symbolic way, reinforcing the importance of the animal perspective in the scientific investigation. This proposal arises in response to the need for a more integrative and ethical approach that transcends traditional methods focused mainly on humanity and that often overlook the broader ethical considerations.
Recently, the ACRf has been the subject of a Theoretical study which evaluated its application in a research protocol on stress response in pigs, demonstrating how this framework can be effectively implemented to improve both the scientific validity and ethical integrity of animal research. This study also highlighted the ACRf’s ability to facilitate a more holistic and iterative ethics review process that not only adheres to scientific standards but also promotes deep respect for animal research subjects.
While it is recognized that there are cases, such as regulatory studies, where ethical issues cannot be fully resolved by the ACRf, this framework offers a valuable tool to highlight the animal perspective and encourage the transition to alternative non-animal methods when Their participation is not beneficial for them.
The adoption of the ACRf could mark a significant change in how ethical review bodies and researchers address ethical challenges in animal research, ensuring that practices are not only scientifically valid, but also deeply ethical. Veterinarians and professionals in the field are urged to consider this framework in their future research, thereby supporting the development of a field that prioritizes animal welfare and rights in all aspects of science.
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