340 • Alternatives to Animal Use in Research, Testing, and Education 
Some egregious violations of human rights in the 
name of medical research occurred earlier in this 
century . The experiments conducted on prisoners 
of war during World War II that were revealed 
at Nuremberg are the most notorious and well- 
known examples; the trials resulted in a code of 
ethics to guide future research. Haunted by the 
specter of patently unethical and scientifically 
unsound research conducted by Nazi physicians, 
some commentators began to complain that it was 
not only in wartime that the rights of human sub- 
jects had been overlooked. In an influential series 
of articles by an American physician (12) and a 
British physiologist (28), hundreds of experiments 
published in major medical journals were re- 
viewed, revealing many instances in which re- 
search subjects were abused or misinformed. In 
addition, there was concern that certain segments 
of the population— blacks, the poor, women, or 
the elderly —were bearing a disproportionate 
share of the burden of being research subjects. 
In response to such revelations about the exploi- 
tation of vulnerable populations, a number of in- 
stitutional review boards (IRBs) were set up in the 
mid-1960s under Federal regulations to oversee 
research with human subjects. Of all the commit- 
tees formed to respond to value questions raised 
by medical practice and biomedical and behavioral 
research, IRBs have the most obvious parallels to 
animal care and use committees . Many of the ques- 
tions raised now about committees on animals— 
whether they can both protect animal subjects and 
abet the scientific enterprise, whether they func- 
tion to minimize pain and suffering in experiments, 
or are mere window dressings for public relations 
purposes— have been addressed in 15 years of ex- 
perience with committees on human subjects . This 
experience includes not only the establishment of 
IRBs within institutions and oversight of the proc- 
ess through the general assurance process moni- 
tored by OPRR (31), but also frequent conferences, 
a spate of academic literature, and the publication 
of a journal devoted exclusively to the human- 
subjects review process, which includes case 
studies reviewing problematic protocols. 
i 
ANIMAL CARE AND USE COMMITTEES 
Roles and Responsibilities 
One commentator has summarized the poten- 
tial functions for animal care and use committees 
as (26): 
• to ensure compliance with local, State, and 
Federal laws and regulations on animal care 
and use; 
• to inspect animal care facilities; 
• to review protocols for animal welfare issues; 
• to assess the qualifications of investigators; 
• to oversee student use of animals; 
• to advise on institutional needs, costs of ani- 
mals, and animal procurement policies; 
• to control allocation of animals within the in- 
stitution; 
• to act as a resource on animal welfare issues 
and to educate the university community and 
the community at large on animal welfare is- 
sues; and 
• to serve as a community complaint forum. 
Each IACUC may be mandated to perform all 
or some of the above responsibilities. Some com- 
mittees oversee the care of all the research ani- 
mals housed in an institution. This may include 
ensuring compliance with local, State , and Federal | 
regulations; inspecting facilities; and advising on 
matters of care and feeding, design of facilities, 
and resource allocation. Some of the most diffi- 
cult problems in this regard have been encoun- ( 
tered in large institutions with farflung, decen- 
tralized facilities that may house only a few animals 
for use by individual researchers or small groups 
of students. Small, satellite facilities can present 
problems in ventilation, sanitation, care, and over- 
sight during weekends and holidays (25). Some 
universities have countered this problem by cen- 
^ tralizing a procurement system, so that the pur- 
chase of an animal by a researcher anywhere in 
the university triggers oversight mechanisms (32). 
At a minimum, the IACUC must comply with the 
PHS policy committee requirements. 
