GESTIÓN EN SALUD PÚBLICA: Is China raising its animal ethics standards?

domingo, 10 de junio de 2018

Is China raising its animal ethics standards?

Is China raising its animal ethics standards?

Bioedge

Is China raising its animal ethics standards?

by Xavier Symons | 9 Jun 2018 |

Gene-editing research has developed at a much faster rate in China compared to Western nations, and many attribute this to the lack of bioethics regulation in the country. Yet are things changing?

A new feature article in The Atlantic gives insight into the ethical considerations that enter into the research processes of leading genetics and animal research teams in mainland China.

It would appear from some of the more controversial research projects conducting in the country --such as the cloning of monkeys -- that very little ethics oversight takes place. Yet according to Robert Desimone, head of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, “the situation [in China] is changing radically”. Researchers at the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology (SIAT), for example, must have relevant research projects reviewed by committee similar to the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees (IACUC). The IACUC is a body that oversees federally funded animal research in the United States, including scientific and ethical assessment of projects. Some Chinese facilities doing research on non-human animals have been accredited by the Association for Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care, an international nonprofit that oversees animal welfare in labs.

Still, reports routinely arise from China of research projects that would not seem to meet the sorts of ethical standards set by Western research ethics oversight bodies.

According to The Atlantic, researchers from SIAT -- with the assistance of leading US genetics researchers -- have deliberately created chimpanzees with genetic defects designed to simulate autism, in an effort to study the causes of autism and relevant drug treatments. Other recent research projects to emerge from China include gene-edited rabbits with muscular dystrophy symptoms, and piglet model of Huntington's disease.

Sunday, June 10, 2018

The deaths this week of fashion designer Kate Spade and celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain (see below) focused the media once again on explanations for America’s rising suicide rates. The short answer is: nobody knows. The more nuanced long answer is: nobody knows for sure. But something is driving it. Here are a few paragraphs from the New York Times which suggest that suicide is becoming culturally more acceptable:

The rise of suicide turns a dark mirror on modern American society: its racing, fractured culture; its flimsy mental health system; and the desperation of so many individual souls, hidden behind the waves of smiling social media photos and cute emoticons.

Some experts fear that suicide is simply becoming more acceptable. “It’s a hard idea to test, but it’s possible that a cultural script may be developing among some segments of our population,” said Julie Phillips, a sociologist at Rutgers.

Prohibitions are apparently loosening in some quarters, she said. Particularly among younger people, Dr. Phillips said, “We are seeing somewhat more tolerant attitudes toward suicide.”

In surveys, younger respondents are more likely than older ones “to believe we have the right to die under certain circumstances, like incurable disease, bankruptcy, or being tired of living,” she said.

If this is the case, why, O why, is there a movement for assisted suicide? Yes, it’s hard to prove, but it makes sense: if assisted suicide is a triumph of compassion and autonomy, how can unassisted suicide possibly be a tragedy?