(OP 286) The Impact of Tissue Engineering on Laboratory Animals-an Ethical Assessment

Animal experiments play an essential role in the development of the field of tissue engineering. Laboratory animals are used to study the fundamental processes involved in tissue engineering and they function as models of human disease and injury for testing new products. Furthermore, some of these products contain xenogeneic cells or materials. Significant from an animal-ethical point of view, however, is that these uses further the instrumentalisation of animals and can cause them considerable discomfort. Moreover, doubts can be and are raised about the adequacy of the current animal models and therefore about the usefulness of the experiments. On the other hand, human cells and human engineered tissue like artificial skin are already applied as alternative methods to animal use. If the promises of tissue engineering were to come to fruition, the field might yield ever more refined products, maybe even whole organs, that potentially could replace laboratory animals and thereby would drastically decrease the need for them. In my paper, I will try to assess both types of impacts of tissue engineering on laboratory animals and discuss whether the latter might be used as an argument to justify the former.