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Paper short abstract:

This paper explores how in vivo scientists talk about animal care and animal welfare as a scientific value. It asks how and when scientists define laboratory animals as 'bio-subjects', which is thematised through Lorraine Daston (1995) notion of a moral economy.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores how in vivo scientists talk about animal care and animal welfare as a scientific value. It draws upon two interrelated research projects, both of which have been conducted as part of the Wellcome Trust funded New Investigator Award Care as Science. First, a survey was sent to a random sample of biomedical scientists who use animals in their research and are based in the UK. Second, 58 survey respondents agreed to a follow up qualitative interview exploring, amongst other things, how scientists talk about and define animal care, animal welfare and animal husbandry in relationship to science. Using these two data sets, I ask how biomedical researchers in the UK value animal care in defining what kinds of lives are worth an animal living in order for good science to result. In other words, I ask how and when scientists define laboratory animals as 'bio-subjects'. I thematise scientists discourses of care through Lorraine Daston (1995) notion of a moral economy, where shared values, which that are both related to broader social life and yet particular to science, shape knowledge production.