Ethics as fuel for scientific advancement: the public concern for animals and its influence on the Brazilian scientific community

Abstract

The objective of this work was to highlight the efforts of the Brazilian scientific community to adapt to the change of the concept of the moral status of nonhuman beings occurred mainly in the 20th century. In the 17th century, the Cartesian doctrine that justified the indiscriminate use of animals for human needs, including that for scientific experiments, was confronted by new approaches that defined animals as sentient and autonomous beings, deserving consideration and worthy of respect. Currently, the respect for animals is widely accepted as necessary. Although our national laws on animal testing do not satisfactorily express the concept of moral status, it is present in the scientific community through efforts that aim at replacing in vivo animal models with techniques based on in vitro and in silico models. When complete replacement is not possible, the number of animals for use in the experiments should be reduced to the possible minimum and their suffering should be minimized, according to the principle of the 3Rs: reduction, refinement and replacement.