In vivo preclinical experimental models, between law and applied ethics. Reflections “from the inside” of an animal welfare body

Abstract

In a highly dynamic regulatory framework, animal experimentation emerges as an issue of considerable ethical depth. The discipline of European matrix, developed by the national policy maker, enhances the role of animal welfare bodies, called upon to verify, in concrete terms, the achievement of a satisfactory balance between the needs of scientific research and that of minimizing the suffering of laboratory animals. Administrative jurisprudence is also in this vein, demanding full compliance with the principle of substitution, reduction, and refinement of experimental models, and contributing to the goal of ever higher quality, conscious and responsible research.