The ethical acceptability of animal experiments: a proposal for a system to support decision-making

We describe a system to support decision-making on the ethical acceptabilit y of animal experiments for scientific researchers and others responsible f or ethical decision-making in animal experiments. The system consists of ei ght steps. Each step contains a number of substantive questions or a comput ational rule, leading to a well-articulated moral judgment on specific anim al experiments. The system comprises a number of moral assumptions and pre- emptive norms, but leaves enough room for moral discretion and personal res ponsibility. The general ethical ideas behind the moral choices and assumpt ions are sketched and potential objections to the overall approach are disc ussed.