A Review on the Ethical Issues of Animal Research

The use of laboratory animals for biomedical research، due to using unwilling research subjects in potentially painful or distressful procedures usually leading to death، is a hotly debated ethical issue. The our purpose was to review of ethical issues of using animals in biomedical research from historical، theoretical، scintific and Islamic standpoints. To collect appropriate research papers and resources in this regard، the related Persian and English words and phrases were searched in a valid set of Iranian and world scientific databases such as PubMed، Web of Knowledge، Google Scholar، IranMedex، Magiran and SID. historitically، there is an increasing sensitivity to using animals in biomedicine in Iran and the world. Theoretically، if animal would have consciousness and ability to experiencing pain and distress، then application of some methods resulted to pain، distress and killing will not justifiable. Recent scientific evidence is suggesting of animal abilities to exprincing and supressing various pains and emotions، as well as the existence of basic emotional systems (such as anger، fear، panic، depression and stress) and vebal، problem-solving skills، tool-related cognition، empathy and self-awareness، causal reasoning، flexible learning، imagination، prospection and Play behavior. These abilities and features may confer a base for ethical protection. Besides، according to Islamic doctrines، the creation of animals has purposeful and animals deserve care and respect; hence، many catholic Islamic decrees regarding to the interaction between human and animals may be generalized to animal using in research. Animal rights and ethical issues in the animal research are supported by solid theoretical، scientific، Islamic and legislatorial fundamentals. It seems necessary that researches become aware and comply with the regulations، as well as to have enough attention to the soul of regulations، i. e. to minimize the animal use and to promote the quality of life of animal research subjects.