Dsicuss about the Ethical Consideration Is Important Animal Research.
Animal ethics are an important aspect in animal research using primates. Organizations have come forward in an attempt to protect the right of animals stating that primates suffer from depression and anxiety caused from being caged for a very long time. Animal activist also argue that primates suffer significant duress and pain because of the many invasive procedures performed on them (Armstrong 2016). Another argument is, because they are phylogenetically close to human being that is why they are good candidates for research and scientific studies; they have feelings just like human beings, they experience pain and most of the primates used for research suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (Belmonte 2015).
The journal on animal ethics indicates that animals should be handled with care especially those that are almost similar to human beings like chimpanzees (Armstrong 2016). Animal activist argue that, this animals should be treated the same way as human who have inability to give consent.
In their defense scientist argue that human are recognized by law and they are protected by the law therefore no research should be conducted on any human beings, on the other hand primates are the closest relative of human beings in the Kingdom Animalia; therefore, this makes them a suitable candidates for studies on conditions that affect human beings, because their physiological processes are almost the same. Scientist argues that primates will never be a human that is why it is easy to study disease processes on them. They support their argument with statistics showing that in the event of a pandemic involving a deadly bacteria or virus which has a high kill rate on humans; primates would be the best elements to study the behavior of that organism in order to come up with a cure (Pound 2004).
The benefits of using primates in animal research outweigh the risk; however ethical considerations should be put in place to protect them. Despite the invasiveness of the procedures animals in research should be treated with dignity too because they are helping the human population. Studies show that primates used in research face distress especially if they are no taken care of. They should be given freedom to behave like other animals despite them being used for research. Activist suggest that they be place in environment where they can jump from tree to tree and get fruits from trees just like in the wild, given this freedom they are more likely to cooperate (Armstrong 2016).
Research has been conducted on animals for a very long time, scientist choose primates because their genetic make-up and that of human beings is not that different. Some part of research must involve test on a primate because testing on human beings could be dangerous, especially when testing live attenuated vaccines or inoculating a monkey with an active organism to study the reactions of that organism on live tissues. Such test cannot be conducted on a human being because they are ethically wrong and they can cause serious legal issues because of the fatality associated with some organism (Prescott 2016).
Primates are used as models to study a disease process, to advance scientific knowledge, to develop and test potential forms of treatment and to protect the safety of human beings and the environment. Animal testing in primates has stirred up a lot of controversies, because a monkey can be used for a long time to study different phenomenon, the controversies stir up in the long term behavior of this monkey which has been caged for years in a laboratory facility being denied its basic rights of being free and in the wild. Research conducted shows that an animal that is caged and denied freedom of any form becomes violent and uncooperative over time unlike an animal that is cared for and given the freedom it deserves (Roelfsema 2014).
Using primates has an advantage because they have phylogenetic similarities to humans; therefore, conducting research on them is like conducting research on human beings, because the organism under study is will behave the same on human tissue and monkey tissue.
Some primate species are now protected; therefore they cannot be used for research. Scientists are advised to use primates in lower levels and not primates in the higher levels. Scientists are also advised on reusing monkeys used for study; this is to minimize the number of monkeys used for research purposes thus maintaining balance in the ecosystem. Endangered species of primates are also not used for study; to empower their existence. Scientists are also advised to replace the more sentient species with the less sentient species.
Research on animals cause significant distress and pain. Ethically pain and distress should be minimized to a level that can be accommodated by the non-human primate. It is ethically wrong to use human primates for study (Chandna 2015). Scientists should be keen on assessing the level of distress in the research subjects. Assessing distress on study subjects is very important. Animals are stoic; therefore, it is very difficult to tell when they are experiencing distress so a researcher should be keen on their behavior, because when an animal is in significant distress its behavior change (Chandna 2015).
The proposed system of treating animals under study with dignity is a humane system, because they are living things only that during their development they did evolve to have specialized functions like the human beings (Zhou 2014).
Statistics show that, estimates of 100 million animals are used for research worldwide. Between 10 million and 11 million are used in the European Union with United Kingdom being the largest user of animals for research; however research on primates such as apes, chimpanzees, orangutans and bonobos was banned in 1998. Now research is conducted on lesser primates like the marmosets and macaques. This ban has led to a significant decrease in the number of research performed on primates in the United Kingdom, this however, does not include other animals; therefore research is still conducted on them, with rodents accounting for 84% of research subjects (Chandna 2015).
Despite the ban on using more sentient primates some scientist still think that it is important to use them to study diseases that affect the cognition and neurologic system of human beings because they also suffer from them. For example chimpanzees can be used to study the one chromosome that makes them different to human beings. Since they are the closest relative to humans they can be used to study conditions such as Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease in human and they can be used to study the treatment process (Pryce 2005). Scientist who support this argue that research involving human beings should be conducted on animals that have a close genetic make up to human beings because they are likely to yield more accurate results.
Experts think that using non-human primate is the only hope for making discoveries in neurodegenerative disorders, immunization and vaccines development and immune functions (Roelfsema 2014).
In the United States more than 105000 primates are imprisoned and caged in laboratories for research and medical studies (Lankau 2014). Some of these animals are breed and born in the laboratories where they are taken away from their mothers and brought up for research purposes. These animals adapt better compared to those that are snatched away from their families in the forest and taken to laboratories for research purposes. Research on primates has led to increased illegal pouching which and illegal sale of animals for research purposes.
These animals are deprived of the freedom to sit, stand and move around, the trauma kicks in and the animal may become depressed or it may become aggressive. An animal that doesn’t adapt is killed because it cannot be taken back to the wild after being inoculated with something that is dangerous to human life. They are denied their basic rights of being animals. That is why animal welfare suggests that in as much as they are human beings primates should be treated ethically just like humans with no ability to give consent.
Research shows that 90% of monkeys in laboratory exhibit abnormal behavior because of psychological torture; being in a cage all day and all night. Physiological torture especially during the period they hunted in the forest and being mishandled in the laboratory. This torture makes some of the subject withdrawn from their surround, some result to self-harm such as tearing and biting their own flesh and others result into aggression. Treating these animals inhumanly most likely results to incomprehensive results, since they are almost similar to human beings, they are likely to behave like human beings when put under stress. They will experience hormonal imbalances which results from the stress leading to altered physiologic systems and altered test results (Zhou 2014).
Over the decade using primates for animal research has led to so many medical breakthroughs because of the similarity between human primates and non-human primates. However research breakthrough is limited to few conditions other conditions like HIV/AIDS have shown fewer breakthroughs (Bracken 2014). Still animals are captured and infected with the virus only to face death in the most saddening way and yield no results. Such situations have led to the animal welfare organizations to come up with codes of ethics when dealing with these animals. In some countries the number of primates used in research is increasing and the number of other animals used in research is decreasing. “In the book ‘Next of Kin, My Conversations with Chimpanzees’, Roger Fouts tells of his life long relationship with chimpanzees. He talks of their empathy and their ability to communicate via sign language and claims that they are part of the ‘moral community’ of humans. He said that to justify biomedical research on these animals because we deny our kinship with them ‘draws a parallel from gruesome experiments on Jews during World War II and on mentally retarded people…to the extensive research on chimpanzees…’ (2000)”
“So where is that fine line that separates atrocities from the pursuit of knowledge, and is the well-being of the human race the only consideration? And it must be remembered that it’s only a portion of the human race that benefits from state of the art medical research; developing nations are not so well off. During the Nuremburg trials it was said that research without informed consent is abhorrent and cannot be condoned. That apparently only applied to the human species. Although these highly philosophical questions are vital to any discussion of the use of NHPs in research, the practicality of the matter is that primates are used. They undergo removal from their families, imprisonment, and unrelieved pain and finally they are killed so that human members of the developed world can live longer. The long term goal is to ban their use altogether, and even the researchers themselves admit that there is room for improvement. But in the meantime what can us, as a society, do to improve their conditions and reduce the number used? There is a cloak of secrecy surrounding research involving non-human primates. Numbers of animals used and the types of experiments or the amount of suffering endured is not readily available to the public. Many researchers claim that it is because of the blatant hostility that they endure from anti-vivisectionists, that they are forced to work in secrecy. Animal rights activists claim that if the work was worthwhile and humane, then researchers would bring it out in the open for everyone to see” (Cuthbertson 2012).
Conclusion
Ethical consideration is important in animal research; the effectiveness of animal research is undeniable; therefore we should treat the animals like they deserve not like prisoners after all they are helping the human race. They should be treated with dignity and respect for their nature. At least if they are going to be infected with a deadly virus the least we can do is give them their freedom to live just like their normal habitats (Walker 2016).
The topic is about animal research in primates. They are mammals of the order primate and are subdivided into two lineages, the Haplorhines and Strepsirines. Primates range in size from primates weighing 30grams to the big primates weighing 220kilograms. According to fossil evidence the earliest primates belonged to the genus Teilhardina which dates to 55.8million years ago, however studies indicate that origin of primates dates way back to around 63-74 million years ago, because anthropologist are still recovering fossil evidence that date back to more than 55.8million years back (Street 2017).
Traditionally the order of primates was Prosimians, which are made up of lemurs, lorsoids and tarsiers, and simians (simians) which are made up of apes and monkeys. This subdivision has changed and scientists now classify primates in three suborders, the Strepsirrhini which consist of non-tarsier Prosimians, and the suborder Haplopirhini which consist of tarsiers and the suborder simians. Simians are further subdivided into two groups made up of; Catarrhines and Platyrrhine. Catarrhines are made up of narrow nosed monkey and ape of Africa and South East Asia, and Platyrrhines are flat nosed new world monkeys of South and Middle America. Humans are the only true Catarrhines who are evenly spread in the whole world.
Primates exhibit a wide range of characteristics which are they have large brains compared to other mammals, dexterous hands, keen vision and they give birth to offspring that require more care than others (Didier 2016).
Human beings are recognized and protected by the law s persons, non-human primates are not; therefore most of the medical research is conducted in non-human primates because they are closely related to human beings. Research conducted on non-human primates includes research on toxic elements, behavior, infectious diseases, neurological studies, reproduction, cognition and xenotransplantation (Suzette 1 January 2013).
This paper will analyze the reason for using primates in animal research, the ethical consideration when using these primates, the type of research conducted on primates and the statistics on the effectiveness of using primates for animal research (Adams 2018).
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