BMC Medical Ethics
http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcmedethics/content
(Accessed 2 April 2016)

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Research article
The ethics of animal research: a survey of the public and scientists in North America
Ari R. Joffe, Meredith Bara, Natalie Anton and Nathan Nobis
Published on: 29 March 2016
Abstract
Background
To determine whether the public and scientists consider common arguments (and counterarguments) in support (or not) of animal research (AR) convincing.
Methods
After validation, the survey was sent to samples of public (Sampling Survey International (SSI; Canadian), Amazon Mechanical Turk (AMT; US), a Canadian city festival and children’s hospital), medical students (two second-year classes), and scientists (corresponding authors, and academic pediatricians). We presented questions about common arguments (with their counterarguments) to justify the moral permissibility (or not) of AR. Responses were compared using Chi-square with Bonferonni correction.
Results
There were 1220 public [SSI, n = 586; AMT, n = 439; Festival, n = 195; Hospital n  = 107], 194/331 (59 %) medical student, and 19/319 (6 %) scientist [too few to report] responses. Most public respondents were Conclusions
Responses suggest that support for AR may not be based on cogent philosophical rationales, and more open debate is warranted.