ext_73043 ([identity profile] coffeekitty.livejournal.com) wrote in [personal profile] rax 2010-10-11 03:13 am (UTC)

yeah, as we move more into systems biology and more directly study the organism in terms of a web of interactions rather than linear control pathways or loops, we are faced more and more with the dilemma that we are investigating things that inherently cannot be modelled in an in vitro system - we have to study the phenomenon in the context of a whole living organism. This has been on my mind a lot because I recently accepted a postdoctoral position in which I will be studying the relationship between inflammation, mutation, and DNA repair. Inflammation is a phenomenon that is sufficiently complicated that we can't model it in vitro, which means that i will be working with mice that have been genetically engineered to be highly predisposed to chronic pathological inflammation and / or deficient in DNA repair. while in the abstract the scientific problem is pretty much a dream come true for me, i found that the related ethics of whether or not to accept the position were ...challenging, so say the least. i ended up doing a lot of research on guidelines for animal protocols and having conversations with the PI to the effect of "if i am going to do this research, i need a firm understanding that i will be allowed, without prejudice, to adhere to an ethical standard regarding treatment of these animals that is acceptable to me, even if this causes more cost/inconvenience, and here is what is and is not acceptable to me."
I believe that the research that I will be doing is important, and I think, after serious reflection, that the cost/benefit analysis comes out in favor of research on animals in this context. But when i was a lab tech, i was required to carry out procedures that i considered inhumane, even though they were technically allowed. I am never, ever, ever going to knowingly accept a position in which i will be even pressured, never mind required, to treat animals in a manner that i consider incompatible with basic compassion towards another conscious individual.

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