Douleurs et société : éthique et pression sociale

Approaching the issue of research on pain in animals brings forward a wide range of unanswered questions, including public concern about the justification of such work. This problematic is a popular theme in the general press showing that the status of research on pain raises the question of the stakes involved in scientific information for the general public. How can we expect to be understood by the general public if our proposed working premise is that pain in an animal is a question which remains scientifically unanswered, while anthropomorphically there is no doubt that a groaning animal is a suffering animal despite the lack of any confirmation coming from scientific methods used in research to answer this type of question. Pain assessment in animals undergoing research should be part of a more global reflection on the pertinence of the animal models used, which requires considering the fundamental criticism of the gap between the animal model and man. A broader approach to these questions with consideration of pain in non-verbally communicating patients (patients with specific conditions or mental disabilities, the very young child, and now even the infant and the fetus) makes any definition of pain increasingly problematic and inoperative, a situation for which a solution must be sought. Public, and media, concern about pain in research animals is widespread. The “social pressure” involved is undoubtedly related to the solutions proposed by the public and political authorities when confronted with the insufficiency of pain treatment in France. The pitfall of this “popularity” resides in the risk of a confused and contradictory denunciation arising from the idea that animal research causes them “useless suffering” and also from the insufficient management of pain treatment and the weakness of progress in clinical and pharmacological research to improve pain treatment. The media, and thus scientific communication, should play a leading role in this educative approach to the general public. Public consensus is a prerequisite to conducting animal research on pain. The day it is prohibited by an animal rights law, such research on pain will have to be discontinued, regrettably, but discontinued nevertheless, and despite the fears arising from the historical setback such a decision would be for mankind.