Congratulations to Christian Rodriguez on completing his doctorate!

On behalf of NRP 79, we would like to congratulate Christian Rodriguez on the successful defense of his doctoral thesis, “Ethical Challenges of Animal Research and the 3Rs: An Experimental Ethics Investigation in Switzerland”, and on completing his doctorate.

His doctoral thesis examined key ethical questions relating to the 3R principle (replace, reduce, refine) and the perception and application of this principle in research. This topic is also the focus of the NRP 79 research project “Is there a need for an ethical reassessment of the 3Rs?”, in which Christian Rodriguez is involved as a member of the research team.

Three key findings from his doctoral thesis

One key finding of the thesis was published in the journal ALTEX in an article entitled “Russell and Burch’s 3Rs Then and Now: The Case of Switzerland”. Swiss laws and guidelines largely correspond to the original 3Rs framework developed by Russell and Burch (the inventors of this principle), but show significant and ethically problematic changes in the definitions of the individual Rs.

In particular, the Swiss Animal Welfare Act is based on an evolutionary, species-based scale that prioritises replacing ‘higher’ animals with ‘lower’ ones. This evolutionary hierarchy risks undermining the original goal of the 3Rs, which is to minimise suffering in general. The article further explores how the legal implementation of the 3Rs in Switzerland could be strengthened to better reflect this foundational goal.

A second important finding comes from an experimental philosophical bioethics study examining 3R dilemmas, specifically conflicts between Reduction (minimizing animal numbers) and Refinement (minimizing harm to each individual animal). The study shows that the fate of animals after the experiment plays a decisive role in how researchers navigate these trade-offs. 173 Switzerland-based researchers working with animals were presented with scenarios in which the animals’ fate (euthanasia, rehoming or reuse) was systematically varied, and they were asked to choose between Reduction and Refinement. The key finding is that the prospect of euthanasia strongly shifts support toward Reduction and favours the use of fewer animals, even if this entails increasing harm per individual. This suggests that researchers attribute substantial moral weight to the the killing of animals, a consideration that is not consistently reflected in current animal research laws and guidelines.

Finally, the thesis examined animal research professionals’ attitudes toward the 3Rs. This experimental ethics study was published in the Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics as “We Are the Earthworms! Aliens Using 3R on Humans: A Qualitative Experimental Ethics Study with Animal Research Professionals”. The study explored how professionals reason about the 3Rs when humans, rather than animals, are subjected to experimentation by a superior alien species following the same framework. Using an immersive thought experiment video, the study revealed a wide range of attitudes. Some participants accepted the use of humans within the 3R framework, while others tried to distinguish between humans and other animals (sometimes explicitly acknowledging speciesist biases). A third group highlighted the limitations of the 3Rs, such as concerns about consent and power asymmetries. The findings underscore the need to further develop ethical frameworks in animal research, expanding beyond the 3Rs.