Title: Researchers Pressured to Store Animal Subjects
Author: Matthew Wroblewski and Tristan McIntosh
Description: Geneticists working on groundbreaking research and funded by a large NIH grant fail to find a safe place to store their lab rats. Their haphazard solution may cost them.
Keyword(s): Animal Subjects Research, IACUC
Case: Geneticists at a major research university are interested in research identifying DNA markers that may predict sexual behavior. The genetics researchers manage to secure a large grant through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to fund this research. They will test Sprague Dawley rats by taking blood and hair samples over a 6-month period and will monitor the sexual behavior of the rats to determine their sexual preference. Unfortunately, the researchers’ department chair recently informed them that there simply is not enough space in the building to store all of the animal subjects needed for their grant. The researchers were distraught until they came up with a simple solution: store the rats in their office cabinets until more lab space becomes available. It did not take long for other faculty members in the department to submit formal complaints to the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) regarding the researchers’ mistreatment of animal subjects and health and safety code violations.
- Is what the researchers did an ethical violation? Why or why not?
- If you were one of the researchers, how would you handle the situation differently?
- What repercussions are the genetics researchers likely to face?