Ethical issues on using invertebrates in environmental and biomedical practices – a case study on living fossil horseshoe crab
Increasing utilization of living animals in ecological and biomedical research has drawn serious concerns in terms of animal welfare and ethical practices in animal handling. Significant attention has been given to animals of higher taxonomical hierarchy especially vertebrates such as fishes, rode...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
Kulliyyah (Faculty) of Medicine, International Islamic University Malaysia
2018
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://irep.iium.edu.my/68943/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/68943/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/68943/1/68943_Ethical%20issues%20on%20using%20invertebrates.pdf http://irep.iium.edu.my/68943/7/68943_Ethical%20issues%20on%20using%20invertebrates%20in%20environmental%20and%20biomedical%20practices_scopus.pdf |
| Summary: | Increasing utilization of living animals in ecological and biomedical research has drawn serious concerns in
terms of animal welfare and ethical practices in animal handling. Significant attention has been given to
animals of higher taxonomical hierarchy especially vertebrates such as fishes, rodents, reptiles and
mammals, while ethical framework on invertebrate handling and welfare is less addressed (except for
cephalopods). The definition of ‘Animal’ itself by any international consortia or Animal Research Act (ARA)
does not include invertebrates as an animal entity. This is due to the lack of standard ethical framework to
understand the pain and other physiological stress experienced by the invertebrate test animal. One such
example would be the living fossil ‘horseshoe crab’ which is extensively bled to obtain its blue blood that is
used for endotoxin quantification in biological samples. The biomedical bleeding itself leads to 15-30% post
bleeding mortality of crabs, while pain and stress caused by the bleeding practice is not studied. Hence, this
paper discusses the technicality of establishing standard framework for invertebrate handling. The paper
also highlights the shari’ah (Islamic law) principles on scientific experimentations on animal subjects,
particularly the norms related to the adoption of invertebrates in environmental and biomedical practice.
Comprehensive review of ethical regulations in animal experiments, especially invertebrates, would be
beneficial for revising and improving existing animal ethical practices |
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