Analysis of Animal Research Ethics Committee Membership at American Institutions

Hansen, Lawrence A.; Goodman, Justin; Chandna, Alka

doi:10.3390/ani2010068

Cited by 19 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Committees and their leadership are comprised of a preponderance of animal researchers, and other members who are affiliated with each institution; some of whom also work in animal laboratories. The study concluded that this composition leads to bias in favour of approving animal experiments and reduce the overall objectivity and effectiveness of the oversight system [ 10 ].…”

Section: “Assessment Studies” In the Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Critical Analysis of Assessment Studies of the Animal Ethics Review Process

Varga

2013

Animals

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Simple SummaryIn many countries, the approval of animal research projects depends on the decisions of the ethics committees which review the projects. Since the efficiency of the protection of experimental animals greatly depends on the performance of the ethics committees, its regular assessment is crucial. This paper reviews the results of studies assessing the performance of the ethics committees, and emphasizes the importance of outcome assessment in the evaluation of the performance of ethics committees.AbstractIn many countries the approval of animal research projects depends on the decisions of Animal Ethics Committees (AEC’s), which review the projects. An animal ethics review is performed as part of the authorization process and therefore performed routinely, but comprehensive information about how well the review system works is not available. This paper reviews studies that assess the performance of animal ethics committees by using Donabedian’s structure-process-outcome model. The paper points out that it is well recognised that AECs differ in structure, in their decision-making methods, in the time they take to review proposals and that they also make inconsistent decisions. On the other hand, we know little about the quality of outcomes, and to what extent decisions have been incorporated into daily scientific activity, and we know almost nothing about how well AECs work from the animal protection point of view. In order to emphasise this viewpoint in the assessment of AECs, the paper provides an example of measures for outcome assessment. The animal suffering is considered as a potential measure for outcome assessment of the ethics review. Although this approach has limitations, outcome assessment would significantly increase our understanding of the performance of AECs.

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Section: “Assessment Studies” In the Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Critical Analysis of Assessment Studies of the Animal Ethics Review Process

Varga

2013

Animals

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“…Ninety-three percent of IACUC chairpersons were animal researchers. 6 It is not unduly cynical for animal welfare advocates to wonder if an animal-use committee system in which 82% of members and 93% of chairpersons have vested interests in continuing animal research might be subject to an approval bias. The most comprehensive analysis of IACUC reviews found 98% approval rates for in-house research protocols, but that when the same protocols were evaluated by blinded IACUCs from other institutions, 61% were judged as 'not very understandable' or 'not understandable at all', as having poor research designs and procedures, or as justifying the type and number of animals in a way that was 'not very convincing' or 'not convincing at all'.…”

Section: Iacuc Membership Compositions and Protocol Approval Ratesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…7 Evidence that IACUCs often approve protocols which do not meet federal standards can also be found in Federal audits, government surveys of US Department of Agriculture laboratory inspectors, and USDA reports. 6 The predominance of animal researchers, and the institutional veterinarians who support them on IACUCs, may also explain why IACUCs evolved into exclusively technical or advisory committees rather than ethics committees. The great majority of IACUC members have, through their career choices, made clear their allegiance to animal experimentation, and for them the ethical conclusion that the ends justify the means is self-evident.…”

Section: Iacuc Membership Compositions and Protocol Approval Ratesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Institution animal care and use committees need greater ethical diversity

Hansen

2012

J Med Ethics

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In response to public outrage stemming from exposés of animal abuse in research laboratories, the US Congress in 1985 mandated Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees (IACUCs) to oversee animal use at institutions receiving federal grants. IACUCs were enjoined to respect public concern about the treatment of animals in research, but they were not specifically instructed whether or not to perform ethical cost-benefit analyses of animal research protocols that IACUCs have chosen, with approval contingent upon a balancing of animal pain and suffering against a reasonable expectation of resultant human benefit. IACUCs have chosen not to make such ethical judgments but, rather, restrict themselves to an advisory role, often tweaking the details of animal-use protocols, but eventually approving all of them. This disinclination by IACUCs to take a broader ethical view of their authority and responsibilities may reflect a membership composition highly skewed towards animal researchers themselves (67%) and institutional veterinarians (15%), both with vested interests in continuing animal research. The resultant ethical monoculture may impair IACUC's ability to meet public concern for laboratory animal welfare. Psychological research has established that unconscious bias affects us all, that deliberations among the like-minded lead to adapting extremist positions, and that groupthink blinds organisations to alternatives that might be obvious to outsiders. Taken together, skewed IACUC membership composition and psychological research insights into unconscious bias and groupthink suggest that an infusion of ethical diversity by increasing the percentage of institutionally unaffiliated members on IACUCs would broaden their ethical perspectives and enable them to better address public concerns about laboratory animal welfare.

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“…Plous and Herzog [ 25 ] discussed how this results in an “ethical monoculture” that is likely to impair the ethical committees’ ability to meet public concern for research animal welfare. Another consequence is that the AECs, in practice, perform a technical or advisory role rather than actually making ethical judgments [ 32 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Varga [ 24 ] argues that it is valid to compose committees with members who represent different backgrounds and perspectives, as ethical issues are complex and society holds a diversity of views. Hansen, et al [ 32 ] argues that because AECs are the only mechanism in place for addressing the ethics of animal research, it is vital that they consider major ethical issues to a greater extent than is done today. Therefore their composition also needs to reflect a greater ethical diversity than is currently the case in many countries [ 32 ] (Sweden is an exemption here).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emotions and Ethical Decision-Making in Animal Ethics Committees

Tjärnström

Weber

Hultgren

et al. 2018

Animals

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Simple SummaryIn the EU, research projects using animals must be evaluated and approved by an ethical committee prior to start to balance potential harm to the animals with potential benefit to humans, in order to ensure moral standards, scientific validity, and public trust. However, different levels of knowledge among committee members, different views on which ethical aspects are relevant, member hierarchies, and a discrepancy between prevailing scientific norms of objectivity and the necessary conditions of a proper ethical evaluation makes it challenging. If applications are not properly evaluated, this can cause distrust in the ethics committees by society. We analyzed the role of scientific norms among Swedish committee members, application of the harm–benefit model, and the role of emotions in the ethical decision-making process. Researchers and chairpersons were most positive, whereas laypersons from animal welfare organizations were most negative. Laypersons more often felt emotionally engaged in the evaluation, but also that they felt they had less influence. We argue that the prevailing scientific norms are preventing necessary conditions for sound ethical evaluation consideration by excluding some members from the discourse. We propose that alternative models for ethical decision-making could contribute to an improved process and hence meet public trust.AbstractEthical evaluation of projects involving animal testing is mandatory within the EU and other countries. However, the evaluation process has been subject to criticism, e.g., that the committees are not balanced or democratic enough and that the utilitarian weighting of harm and benefit that is normally prescribed is difficult to carry out in practice. In this study, members of Swedish Animal Ethics Committees (AECs) completed a survey aiming to further investigate the decision-making process. We found that researchers and animal laypersons make significantly different ethical judgments, and hold disparate views on which ethical aspects are the most relevant. Researchers were significantly more content than laypersons with the functioning of the committees, indicating that the ethical model used suited their preferences better. We argue that in order to secure a democratic and proper ethical evaluation, the expectations of a scientific discourse must be acknowledged, while giving room for different viewpoints. Further, to fulfil the purpose of the project evaluations and meet public concern, the functions of the different AEC member categories need to be clarified. We suggest that one way of achieving a more thorough, balanced and inclusive ethical evaluation is to allow for more than one model of ethical reasoning.

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Analysis of Animal Research Ethics Committee Membership at American Institutions

Cited by 19 publications

References 10 publications

Critical Analysis of Assessment Studies of the Animal Ethics Review Process

Critical Analysis of Assessment Studies of the Animal Ethics Review Process

Institution animal care and use committees need greater ethical diversity

Emotions and Ethical Decision-Making in Animal Ethics Committees

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