Ethics in Animal Research WrittenAssignment

In this written assignment, you will act as the Animal CareCommittee for your university. It is the committee’s responsibilityto evaluate and either approve or reject research proposalssubmitted by faculty members who want to use animals for researchor instructional purposes in psychology, biology, ormedicine.

For this written assignment, choose two of the four case studieslisted below and critically evaluate each one using the questionsprovided. The proposals describe experiments, including the goalsand potential benefits of the research as well as any discomfort orinjury that they may cause to the animal subjects. You must eitherapprove the research or deny permission for the experiments. It isnot your job to suggest improvements on technical aspects of theprojects, such as the experimental design. You should make yourdecision based on the information given in the proposal.

Case Study Questions (1 Page Per Case):

1-Case Study #

2-Final Decision

3-What were three of your concerns regarding the ethicaltreatment of the animals involved in your case?

4-Cite and explain each of your three concerns usingspecific examples from the APA Guidelines for Animal Research(http://www.apa.org/science/leadership/care/guidelines.aspx).

5-What ultimately lead you to your decision?

6-What is one remaining question you still have about animalresearch in psychology?

CASE ONE

Professor King is a psycho-biologist working on the frontiers ofa new and exciting research area of neuroscience, brain grafting.Research has shown that neural tissue can be removed from thebrains of monkey fetuses and implanted into the brains of monkeysthat have suffered brain damage. The neurons seem to make theproper connections and are sometimes effective in improvingperformance in brain-damaged animals. These experiments offerimportant animal models for human degenerative diseases such asParkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Dr. King wants to transplant tissuefrom fetal monkey brains into the entorhinal cortex of adultmonkeys; this is the area of the human brain that is involved withAlzheimer’s disease. The experiment will use 20 adult rhesusmonkeys. First, the monkeys will be subjected to ablation surgeryin the entorhinal cortex. This procedure will involve anesthetizingthe animals, opening their skulls, and making lesions using asurgical instrument. After they recover, the monkeys will be testedon a learning task to make sure their memory is impaired. Threemonths later, half of the animals will be given transplant surgery.Tissue taken from the cortex of monkey fetuses will be implantedinto the area of the brain damage. Control animals will besubjected to sham surgery, and all animals will be allowed torecover for 2 months. They will then learn a task to test thehypothesis that the animals having brain grafts will show bettermemory than the control group. Dr. King argues that this researchis in the exploratory stages and can only be done using animals.She further states that in the near future about 3 millionAmericans will have Alzheimer’s disease and that her research couldlead to a treatment for the devastating memory loss thatAlzheimer’s victims suffer.

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CASE TWO

The Psychology Department is requesting permission from yourcommittee to use 10 rats per semester for demonstration experimentsin a physiological psychology course. The students will work ingroups of three; each group will be given a rat. The students willfirst perform surgery on the rats. Each animal will beanesthetized. Following standard surgical procedures, an incisionwill be made in the scalp and two holes drilled in the animal’sskull. Electrodes will be lowered into the brain to create lesionson each side. The animals will then be allowed to recover. Severalweeks later, the effects of destroying this part of the animal’sbrain will be tested in a shuttle avoidance task in which theanimals will learn when to cross over an electrified grid. Theinstructor acknowledges that the procedure is a commondemonstration and that no new scientific information will be gainedfrom the experiment. He argues, however, that students taking acourse in physiological psychology must have the opportunity toengage in small animal surgery and to see firsthand the effects ofbrain lesions.