The Costs and Benefits of Animal Experiments

This book examines in detail the contributions of animal research to human healthcare, and the extent to which laboratory animals suffer. It cites more than 500 scientific publications, and relies on systematic reviews of the human clinical or toxicological utility of animal models as its primary form of evidence. At the core of most regulations governing laboratory animal use is the requirement that ethics committees coduct a cost/benefit analysis to ensure that the expected benefots of such research exceed its likely costs. Humans are the major beneficiaries, and animals incur the major costs. This book summarises trends in laboratory animal use and in major world regions, and reviews the types of procedures animals are subjected to, and their invasiveness. Methodological flaws commonly limiting utility are described. Each of the three Rs is reviewed in detail, as is the use of animals in biomedical education. The book concludes with an overview of key regulations governing animal experimentation within Europe and North America, and proposes a set of policy reforms designed to facilitate increased implementation of the three Rs.

272 pages. Available as a Hardcover, Softcover & eBook. Part of the Palgrave Macmillan Series on Animal Ethics. Table of Contents. May be ordered at Springer. 

ISBN: Hardcover: 978-0-230-24392-7, Softcover: 978-1-137-28968-1, eBook: 978-0-230-30641-7

Price: Hardcover: €99.99, Softcover: €64.99, eBook: €37.44