Law Commons^™

Animal Experimentation: Lessons From Human Experimentation, Arthur Birmingham Lafrance

Animal Law Review

This article is adapted from the author's presentation during the panel discussion Animals in Research: Pet Cloning, Patents, and Bioethics at the 14th Annual Animal Law Conference of Lewis & Clark Law School on October 14, 2006.

Conventional wisdom tells us that animal experimentation is a relevant precursor to human experimentation. The failings of human experimentation to be more reliable, however, casts substantial doubt on the necessity and appropriateness of experimentation on animals. The federal government and medical community, since World War II, has used the Nuremberg Code and the “common rule” to determine how to ethically conduct human experimentation. …