Animal experimentation ethics from an experimenter's point of view.

The experimental biologist faces two kinds of ethical problems: practical and philosophical. The practical problems comprise increased costs of experimental animals, and the risk of being harassed or even raided by animal activists. There is also today a growing bureaucratic ethics overhead that has to be paid for, one way or another. The philosophical problems are the true ethical problems. Most laws and regulations emphasize that pain and agony should be minimized, but it is shown that this is neither always necessary nor always adequate. Scientists expect logical reasoning and opinions based on facts, but it is easy to find examples that the public opinion is quite illogical concerning pain and agony. For instance, you may under certain circumstances very well torture and kill animals just for pleasure. Our present legislation should be amended so as to concur better with current public views on how animals should be treated. The Swedish Committees on Animal Experimentation Ethics were intended to help scientists understand the demands of the public opinion. It is doubtful if they have been successful. The ethics of animal experimentation are perforce centered on the experimenter. He alone, at the final moment, makes the decision whether or not to use and, eventually, to kill the animal. When he kills, he obviously has a reason for doing so, and has decided that the purpose justifies the action. With the very large increase in the number of animal experiments in the last few decades, society has justifiably become increasingly concerned about the ethical considerations involved.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)