Filling the gap: improving education on the ethics of animal use in biological field research

填补空白：改善生物领域研究中动物使用的伦理教育

• 批准号: 0832697
• 负责人: Mark Wallace
• 金额: $ 29.95万
• 依托单位: Texas Tech University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-01-01 至 2012-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0832697&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Filling; gap; improving; education; ethics

Federal regulations control the use of animals in research in the life sciences to ensure that ethical issues are dealt with in planning and carrying out experiments using animals. Most of the experiments are conducted in laboratory settings after review by Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees (IACUCs), required by law to review and approve every study involving live vertebrates. However, the existing language is written broadly and also applies to field studies. The latter are conducted under very different conditions and typically focus on the well-being of free-living populations or species, making the existing ethical guidelines problematic. The IACUSs often find themselves struggling to apply the language and prescribed methodologies of laboratory research to the questions and methodologies of field biological research. This can result in two types of undesirable consequence: first, studies that should be performed would be inappropriately curtailed; and second, studies that should be avoided might erroneously be approved. This research addresses this problem by 1) identifying appropriate ethical guidelines for field biological research; 2) devising a methodology for instructing the current and next generation of field researchers on this topic at a model institution; 3) evaluating the effectiveness of this methodology and modifying it based on the findings; and 4) generating materials for national testing of the program. The broader impact is substantial to the host institution which is implementing an Ethics Initiative aimed at encouraging discussion of ethical issues among students and faculty and to all research institutions with IACUCs asked to review field studies with animals.

联邦法规控制生命科学研究中动物的使用，以确保在规划和进行动物实验时解决伦理问题。 大多数实验是在经过机构动物护理和使用委员会 (IACUC) 审查后在实验室环境中进行的，法律要求审查和批准每一项涉及活体脊椎动物的研究。 然而，现有语言的书写范围很广泛，也适用于实地研究。后者是在非常不同的条件下进行的，通常关注自由生活的种群或物种的福祉，这使得现有的道德准则存在问题。 IACUS 经常发现自己很难将实验室研究的语言和规定的方法应用于现场生物学研究的问题和方法。这可能会导致两种不良后果：首先，应该进行的研究会被不适当地缩减；其次，应该避免的研究可能会被错误地批准。本研究通过以下方法解决了这个问题：1）确定现场生物学研究的适当伦理准则； 2）设计一种方法，指导模范机构当前和下一代实地研究人员了解该主题； 3）评估该方法的有效性并根据结果进行修改； 4) 生成用于程序国家测试的材料。对于正在实施旨在鼓励学生和教师之间讨论道德问题的道德倡议的主办机构以及要求IACUC审查动物实地研究的所有研究机构来说，更广泛的影响是巨大的。