Handbook Of Animal Models And Its Uses In Cancer Research PDF Download

"Animal experimentation is a fundamental part of pre-clinical research. Among primary goals of animal research is to benefit the health and wellbeing of humankind. Animal experimentation in biomedical scientific research is a contentious topic in research ethics. On one side, animal experimentation is considered to be ethically acceptable because it benefits human interests. Alternatively, many consider reifying and inflicting pain on animals for humanity's gain as violating animal moral rights, and thus it is deemed unethical. There remains no clear-cut universal consensus regarding the ethical legitimacy of animal use in laboratories, and the number of animals used in pre-clinical research has grown in the last two decades. This has resulted in a strong movement urging for reforms to current animal models in biomedical research. However, some types of pre-clinical research cannot replace animal models, and continue to need them for proper scientific results, such as cancer research. Cancer research is extremely strenuous and demanding on animal subjects. Consequently, numerous researchers and animal activists have developed moral malaise regarding experimental animal use in pre-clinical cancer research. Further concerns have emerged regarding transferability and relevancy of data gathered from experimental animal subjects to human clinical trials. Accordingly, a novel in-vivo reform to address these concerns is the Companion Animal Model (CAM), where pets who spontaneously develop cancer are used as pre-clinical cancer research subjects. While the use of pets as subjects is starting to be recognized in the pre-clinical research field, the ethical considerations and complications associated with the CAM have not been explored in depth. This thesis discusses the pragmatic benefits and limitations of the CAM, as well as suggests additional ethical responsibilities that researchers should uphold to respect the owner-companion animal relationship. Further, certain potential ethical complications that may emerge when using the CAM are introduced. The ethical discussion is based on owner-companion animal and researcher-animal relationships, as well as the moral rights, interests, obligations, and responsibilities of the owner, companion animal, and researchers. Finally, this thesis encourages further ethical discussion regarding the CAM prior to any policy or guideline formalization." --