Nursing: Animals With Ethical Issues, Essay Example

Discuss a specific research study involving animals that had ethical issues.

Dr. John H. Draize, a scientist attached to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), designed the Draize eye test in 1944. The test was meant to evaluate eye irritation after exposure to certain chemicals. During the assessment a substance instilled in one i eye. As a control another substance was placed in the other eye. Rabbits were used to conduct the study. These rabbits were subject to various restraining measures, which prevented them from reacting to the irritant naturally. Twenty four hour evaluations were done for a period of fourteen days. A small sample continued the experiment for up to three weeks longer (Product testing, 2014).

Various levels of irritation experienced in these rabbits’ eyes were recorded using numbers. Observations of three distinct eyes tissues were made. They included the conjunctiva, iris and cornea. Reactions were immense inclusive of bleeding of the cornea, redness, blindness and ulcers. Upon completion of the experiment many of the rabbits were killed since it was difficult for them to function normally again (Product testing, 2014).

What were the ethical issues involved?

There seems to be  two major issues arising for this experiment. First there seems to be no permission granted from animal protection organizations for conduct of this experiment and secondly it seems rather immoral to expose these creatures to such atrocity and kill them afterwards just because they are animals and cannot talk or have any power to refuse these atrocities. According to David Degrazia (1999) animals have rights. These rights have to be challenged by human advocates since animals have no voice (Degrazia, 1999)

What could have been done to conduct the research study differently to avoid these ethical issues

If animals had to be used in this research attempts should have been made to rehabilitate them after the study rather than killing them. These are some salient alternatives advanced by Beauchamp, Walters,  Kahn, & Mastroianni (2008) when they discuss contemporary issue in bioethics (Beauchamp, Walters,  Kahn, & Mastroianni, 2008)

References

Beauchamp, T. Walters, L. Kahn, P., & Mastroianni, A. (2008). Contemporary issues in bioethics (7th ed.) Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing

Degrazia, D. (1999). The Ethics of Animal Research: What are the prospectus  forAgreement? Pdf.

Product testing (2014). Types of Animal Testing. Retrieved on My 20^th, 2014 from http://www.aavs.org/site/c.bkLTKfOSLhK6E/b.6457299/k.82D0/Types_of_Animal_Testing.htm#.U3r1-sHD_vI