Cost: benefit evaluations for research protocols. Response: Room for improvement.

摘要

In past years, none of Rosinski's IACUC protocols had been seriously questioned, but Brittany Paulson, a new graduate student on the IACUC, reviewed Rosinski's protocol in a different manner than had been done in the past. At the full committee meeting, Paulson said she clearly understood Rosinski's rationale for choosing the study endpoint described in the protocol and the reasons why an earlier one could not be used. But Paulson questioned the benefit of the study compared with the distress that the animals would undergo. "It's not that I think there is no value at all to this study," said Paulson, "but study after study has demonstrated the harmful effects of tobacco and the results of this study may just put another nail in the coffin. In England, where I come from, we would have to weigh the cost of suffering to the animals against the benefit to society that might arise from this study. I see no such analysis here."