© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2020 | doi:10.1163/25889567-bja10004 Journal of Applied Animal Ethics Research 2 (2020) 193–215 brill.com/jaae Evaluating the Scientific Uses of Animals: A Virtue-Consequentialist Approach for Harm/ Benefit Analyses Simone Pollo Department of Philosophy, Sapienza University of Rome, Via Carlo Fea, 2, 00161 Rome, Italy simone.pollo@uniroma1.it Augusto Vitale Center for Behavioural Science and Mental Health, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Viale regina Elena, 299, 00161 Rome, Italy augusto.vitale@iss.it Abstract The topic of this contribution is the moral justification of the use of non-human ani- mals in scientific research. First, we will discuss the position of leading antispeciesist approaches of animal ethics, arguing that a radical position is not tenable and jus- tification of some animal use in research can be given based on the importance of science for human civilization. Such use must be justified case by case. Therefore, the harm-benefit analysis will be introduced, as an example of a case-by-case scenario. We will describe the challenge encountered by the evaluators of project proposals, and possible ways of considering harms and benefits in basic, translational and regula- tory research, minimizing harms and possible future scenarios. Our approach can be regarded as a virtue consequentialist view of the ethics of human/animal relationships in scientific use, where the development of a morally appreciable character is a key topic for the education of scientists. Keywords animal ethics ‒ animal experimentation ‒ animal welfare ‒ consequentialism ‒ harm/ benefit analysis ‒ principle of the 3Rs ‒ virtue ethics Downloaded from Brill.com07/31/2022 06:07:07AM via free access