Conference paper
INFLUENCE OF SELECTED FACTORS ON DEVELOPMENT THE STUDENTS' OF THE BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES FACULTIES BIOETHICAL ATTITUDES TOWARDS EXPERIMENTAL ANIMAL STUDIES
Oleg Fedyk
; Students' Scientific Assossiation in Chair of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Silesian Medical University, Katowice, Poland
Krzysztof Maria Wilczyński
; Students' Scientific Assossiation in Chair of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Silesian Medical University, Katowice, Poland
Abstract
Background: Although it may help to widen our knowledge, conducting experiments with use of animals, is very controversial,
especially since the most recent technology enables us to significantly avoid their use. Currently, the European directives require
researchers to reduce the using of animals in scientific experiments, but some studies suggest awareness of the problem is still
insufficient. Thanks to examining students’ attitude towards conducting scientific experiments on animals the authors wanted to
discover and mark the most significant factors that might have impact on moulding students‘ opinions.
Subjects and methods: 217 subjects participated in the study. They were students of the Faculty of Medicine at the Silesian
Medical University in Katowice and students of the Biology & Biotechnology Faculty at the University of Silesia. A proprietary
questionnaire sent via the Internet was used. The authors created specific ratios and numeral 5-grade Likert-type scale showing the
behavioural, cognitive and affective component of the respondents’ attitudes on the issue being studied. It contained among other
things the questions such as granting animals personality, consciousness, and the right to life. The method used allowed the
investigators to show the general trends of all the studied responses and therefore the compilation of results.
Results: The study showed that the attitude of respondents on studied subject undergoes some changes related to gender.
Furthermore, the results did not depend with statistical significance on previous experience in conducting such experiments,
religious belief of respondent, his or her parents type and level of education. It also showed the that students had little knowledge
about current animal protection law and alternative methods to animal research.
Conclusions: The results show the complexity and multiplicity of factors influencing the attitudes of bioethics and point to the
need to deepen our knowledge in the studied area.
Keywords
bioethics; animal experimentation; student; attitude
Hrčak ID:
264621
URI
Publication date:
29.12.2015.
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