Medical Research with Animals | 373 Narveson, Jan 1987 On the case for animal rights Monist 70(1), 31–49 Nelson, James 1986 Xenograft and partial affections Between the Species 2(2), 70–80 Pluhar, Evelyn 1995 Beyond prejudice: The moral significance of human and nonhuman animals Durham, NC: Duke University Press Pluhar, Evelyn 2006 Experimentation on humans and nonhumans Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 27 (4), 333–355 Regan, Tom 1982 An examination and defense of one argument concerning animal rights All that dwell therein Berkeley: University of California Press Rollin, Bernard 1982 Animal rights and human morality, rev ed Buffalo: Prometheus Books Savage-Rumbaugh, Sue, Lewin, Roger 1994 Kanzi: The ape at the brink of the human mind New York: John Wiley and Sons Singer, Peter 1990 Animal liberation New York: New York Review of Books Townsend, Peter 1979 Radical vegetarians Australasian Journal of Philosophy 57(1), 85–93 Evelyn Pluhar MEDICAL RESEARCH WITH ANIMALS The topic of using animals in science in general and in medical research specifically is very controversial Most people involved in the controversy focus on the ethics of using animals Animal advocates, on the other hand, state that humans not have the right to use sentient nonhumans for selfish purposes Animal users claim that without using animals in medical research we would no longer see cures and treatments for diseases Differences Animals are used for scientific purposes in essentially nine different ways (Table 1): Animals as models for human disease Animals as models for testing drugs destined for humans Animals as spare parts Animals as factories or bioreactors Animal tissue to study basic physiological principles Animals for dissection in education Animals as a modality for ideas (heuristic) To benefit other animals, such as in veterinary research Knowledge for knowledge’s sake However, when people think about the use of animals in medical research, they usually think of number 1, using animals to model human diseases, and number 2, using animals in drug testing and development in order to predict human response In these two areas, the differences between species and even between individuals become important Many drugs may be good for patients, provided they are given in the proper dose at the proper time In the 16th century, this concept led Paracelsus to say: “The dose determines the poison.” The same is true today But today we should add a corollary: The genetic makeup also determines the poison For example, of ten medications withdrawn from the U.S market between 1998 and 2001, eight were withdrawn secondary to side effects that occurred primarily in women (GAO, 2001) Among cigarette smokers, African Americans and Native Hawaiians are more susceptible to lung cancer than whites, Japanese Americans, and Latinos (Haiman et al., 2006) Identical, or monozygotic, twins not always succumb to the same disease despite