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Islamic Bioethics and Animal Research
Islamic Bioethics and Animal Research
Islamic Bioethics and Animal Research
Robert Tappan
ABSTRACT
Despite growing interest in Islamic bioethics, little work has been done on
research ethics in Islam, and even less on animal research ethics. This essay
explores religious and scientific insights into the lives of animals used as
research subjects, particularly in Iran. The inner lives of animals and their
relationship to their Creator as relayed by the Quran, ethological research on
animal minds, and neuroethical reflection on painience (the ability to feel and
process pain as noxious [injurious] and explicitly hurtful) are brought together
to question the current, relatively unrestricted use of research animals in
Iran. The essay concludes that Islamic sources and the desire of Iranian clini-
cians to treat laboratory animals in line with them could poise Muslims to take
the lead in developing alternatives to animal research. Further, recent sugges-
tions that human and animal research guidelines and protections should be
brought closer together are examined in light of these findings.
KEY WORDS: bioethics, animals, research ethics, Islam, Shiite, Iran
1. Introduction
The development of bioethics in the United States and Europe has
been profoundly impacted by the history of biomedical research scandals
in those locations (see Kuhse and Singer 2001, 710; Jonsen 1998).
These abuses account for a significant portion of the emphasis onas
one examplethe principle of autonomy (and related clinical and labora-
tory dimensions, such as informed consent, coercion, privacy, and so on)
in Western bioethics. However, the growing body of work on Islamic bio-
ethicsincluding both theoretical and clinical studieshas paid little
attention to questions of research ethics (Sachedina 2009, 19699).
Part of this apparent discrepancy likely stems from the different his-
torical circumstances during the rise of contemporary biotechnology in
America and Europe and in historically Muslim-majority countries. But
we await a detailed examination of the history and ethics of human
research in pre-modern and contemporary biomedicine in Muslim
JRE 45.3:562578. V
C 2017 Journal of Religious Ethics, Inc.
Islamic Bioethics and Animal Research 563
1
Animal throughout this essay refers to non-human animals of all types.
564 Journal of Religious Ethics
ailment, and There is a medicine for every ailment such that if a right
medicine hits a corresponding ailment, health is restored by Gods
permission, are examples of this underlying sentiment which helped fos-
ter developments in medicine over the course of Islams 1400-year his-
tory (Rahman 1998, 34).
Furthermore, Islamic sourcesincluding the Quran as well as the
hadithhave long been read as granting human beings the role of Gods
viceregent on earth and elaborate on the various uses of animals, and
indeed all creation, which are seen to have been divinely granted to
humans, including their use for food, clothing, and transport. Some rep-
resentative examples include: And He has made subservient to you
whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth, all, from
Himself; most surely there are signs in this for a people who reflect (Q.
45:13), and And He created the cattle for you; you have in them warm
clothing and (many) advantages, and of them do you eat (Q. 16:5).2 So it
should not be surprising to find that the religiously inspired drive for sci-
entific and medical advancement can be coupled with the religious per-
mission to use animals for human benefit, providing Muslims with a
justification for the use of animals in biomedical research.
But upon further examination, we see that a tension exists between
the instrumental use of animals for human purposes and the inherent
value of the divinely given lives of animals. In addition to the scriptural
sources that support the use of animals for human ends, there are others
that provide many additional insights into the lives of animals and their
relationships to God. We will consider these in a moment. This tension
has received some attention over the course of Islamic historyfrom
early theological debates about the nature of suffering (Ormsby 2010,
74), to contemporary discussions about Islamic views of animals and the
environment (Shomali 2008a), to the use of animals in modern biomedi-
cine (Sachedina 2009, 92).
However, we have seen relatively few detailed discussions, and only lim-
ited attention paid to a deeper, more complex reflection on the nature and
status of animals in Islam, as well as to specific applications of Islamic
scriptural and religious-legal guidelines on animals and how these corre-
spond with their use in biomedicine. There are a few works from contempo-
rary scholars that explore both of these topics in some detail (see Masri
2007, 1986; Ebrahim 2001), but I have not seen either one cited by scholars
concerned with Islamic bioethics or animal researchwhether researchers
in Iran (for purposes of this paper) or Western scholars of Islam.
2
Unless otherwise noted, all translations of the Quran refer to Shakirs translation
(1999).
Islamic Bioethics and Animal Research 565
3
Shomali serves as an Associate Professor of Philosophy and Head of the Department of
Religious Studies at the Imam Khomeini Education & Research Institute in Qom, Iran.
4
For another unique collection of hadith about animals from the Shiite imams, see Foltz
2006, 2225.
5
This citation uses the translation by Pickthall 2000.
566 Journal of Religious Ethics
6
Reza Samani M.D., Head of the Department of Epidemiology and Reproductive Health,
email message to author, December 7, 2011. It is not clear which of the various sets of
guidelines sponsored by the NIH and its affiliated bodies are those used.
7
Samani, email message to author, December 7, 2011.
568 Journal of Religious Ethics
8
The Royan Institute sponsored a congress on animal ethics in the fall of 2011, but the
proceedings have not yet been published. Likewise, in December 2015 the Institute spon-
sored a session on Introduction of Laboratory Animals Application in Biomedical
Research, but the list of topics covered does not include ethical or religious discussion of
the use of animals in research.
Islamic Bioethics and Animal Research 569
9
He it is Who created for you all that is in the earth, and He directed Himself to the
heaven, so He made them complete seven heavens, and He knows all things.
570 Journal of Religious Ethics
10
This is not limited to Iran, but is the case throughout much of the world. In addition,
many countries in Europe and North America have their own counting systems which exclude
or otherwise count the animals used in an unclear manner. See Orlans 2001, 4001.
11
Samani, email message to author, December 7, 2011.
Islamic Bioethics and Animal Research 571
disciplines. Scientists continue to gain further insight into the inner lives
of animalsincluding their capacity for suffering and pain, whether
through learning to communicate with them in various ways (with apes,
dolphins, and dogs, for example), or through experiments which allow
for scientific claims about animal behaviors, motivations, thoughts, and
emotions.
One notable example on this topic is the recent study demonstrating
the pro-social or empathetic behavior of laboratory rats, who were found
consistently to free their confined fellows from the experiments trap
(Bartal, Ben Ami, Decety, and Mason 2011). How might this scientific
knowledge affect the use of rats in Iranian research? What does it mean
that animals normally thought to be pests or vermin have lives in which
they value and care for the well-being of their fellows? What to make of
ongoing ethological research that shows that animals have rich social
lives, complex language abilities, a wide range of emotions, and so on
(Orlans 2001, 4012)?
We can see some possibilities in the Avicenna Institute article that
acknowledges that researchers must recognize and treat animals as sen-
tient beings, and acknowledge and account for their ability to feel pain
and distress (Naderi et al. 2012, 115, 119). Neuroethics can also shed
some light on how to treat animals used in research. The concept of
painience, or the ability to feel [and process] pain as noxious (injuri-
ous) and explicitly hurtful, adds to ideas of sentience and can lead to
further protections for animal subjects (Loveless and Giordano 2014, 7,
9). Thus painience ought to be a necessary and sufficient condition for
moral consideration and respectful treatment (Loveless and Giordano
2014, 10)despite any cultural, religious, or civil laws that might down-
play the status of any particular species.
From a more religious perspective, we find verses in the Quran that
attest to the worship between animals and their Creator (Q. 24:41): Do
you not see that Allah is He Whom do glorify all those who are in the
heavens and the earth, and the (very) birds with expanded wings? He
knows the prayer of each one and its glorification, and Allah is Cogni-
zant of what they do.
Tlili provides a scriptural argument from this and other passages for
insight into animal lives and minds and, in particular, their spirituality.
She finds the Quran full of examples of animals praising God, relying
on God for sustenance and care, making moral choices, communicating
with their own kind, as well as with certain human beings, and much
more (Tlili 2012, 165). In Tlili, we find an argument for knowing how
and why we ought to very carefully consider our use of any animal. For
believing Muslims, this argument complements or even transcends other
perspectives from ethology or neuroethics in that it comes from the
Scripture itself. The Quran allows humans to hear the voices and
Islamic Bioethics and Animal Research 573
counterparts (Orlans 2001, 408). This corresponds well with our earlier
discussion that showed Islamic permissibility for animal testing only if it
were expected to bring significant positive outcomes for human health.
In cases where animals are deemed crucial for research, we again find
the thinkers at Avicenna poised to push ahead. Tlilis description of the
rich inner lives of animals dovetails with scientific research calling for
enriched environments for laboratory animals. As we mentioned above,
Islamic thinking about the use of animals was always predicated on
allowing them to live a normal and comfortable life, with access to food
and water, with social interaction with others of their species, with pro-
tection from injury and violence, and with as humane a death as possi-
ble. Modern animal research methods, for the most part, have been
antithetical to such concerns. Instead, animals are often kept in cages or
other unnatural environments, are isolated, and are otherwise divorced
from their natural behaviors, which can lead to suffering beyond what
they may face in any experiment itself (Orlans 2001, 4056). Environ-
mental enrichment is on the rise in laboratories throughout the world,
and while the Avicenna researchers do not call specifically for environ-
mental enrichment, they do stress the need for species-appropriate hous-
ing facilities (Naderi et al. 2012, 116). In light of the points above, it
would seem that calling for environmental enrichment in Iranian labora-
tories would not be a stretch.
Finally, if we accept the various perspectives mentioned so far, it might
well be reasonable to move standards for animal subjects more in line with
human subjects. Tlilis work shows a scriptural argument for shared lin-
guistic, mental, emotional, moral, spiritual, and sometimes rational capaci-
ties between humans and animals. Her thought builds on and expands the
widely known (though not always acted-upon) Islamic value of kindness
for animals as was laid out in the works of the Iranian scholars and clini-
cians considered here. We saw ethological writings which confirm scientifi-
cally the complex inner lives of animals. Loveless and Giordanos work on
painience makes a neuroethical case for the consideration of laboratory
animals based on similarities in the ability to suffer pain, whether human
or animal. Even if Muslim scholars were to maintain a sense of human
superiority in the face of Tlilis claimsthe bulk of which we were unable
to examine herethese points show a significant overlap between how we
ought to treat both human and animal research subjects.
In my exchange with Dr. Samani at the Royan Institute, he indicated
that Islamic bioethics is human based and is considered completely
separate from research using animal subjects.12 In light of the evidence
12
Samani, email message to author, December 7, 2011.
Islamic Bioethics and Animal Research 575
7. Conclusion
The rapid development of biotechnology in Iran is set to continue. In
fact, recent news articles report that Iran is set to open the worlds largest
center for neurological research (The Iran Project 2016), as well as an ani-
mal farm to supply animals for scientific and pharmacological research
(Real Iran 2016). These sorts of developments will certainly increase the
use of research animals as well as human subjects. Thus the wider field of
research ethics, and its subfield of animal research ethics, requires more
attention from those concerned with Islamic bioethics.
If it is true, as several of the Muslim authors cited here claim, that
Islam is better poised to provide more humane treatment of animals in
comparison to other faiths and secular thinkers, then taking a closer
look at the use of research animals as provided in this essay can be an
important step towards realizing this end. However it is that Muslim
scholars and clinicians decide to proceed with the use of animals in
research, it is clear that so far there has been only a limited engagement
with both the relevant religious-ethical sources and with contemporary
scientific research in the fields of ethology and neuroethics. But there
576 Journal of Religious Ethics
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