The Trouble with Animal Models in Brain Research

Abstract

This chapter focuses on two problems, or ``troubles,'' with animal models used in neuroscientific research: the failure of many animal models to yield useful and beneficial information and the ethical dilemma built into claims about the similarity-based usefulness of an animal model, which is especially acute in the context of brain-related research. There are well-documented problems with validity and reproducibility, resulting in the failure of animal research to translate to humans. This chapter will focus in particular on the well-known and well-studied failure of animal models in stroke research. The essentially Utilitarian cost/benefit claim that human benefits justify harms to animals in research is threatened if those benefits consistently fail to materialize and, indeed, if there is the potential for significant harm to humans, including opportunity costs, wasted resources, and risks to human research subjects. An honest reckoning of the costs, harms, and benefits of animal research is unlikely to support the status quo because very little research will be useful or needed, and thus very little will be ethically justifiable.