Op-Ed: The Supreme Court shouldn’t meddle with California’s standards on meat and eggs
The Supreme Court is poised to issue a ruling on the “dignity of life” with respect to the use of animal tests.
By now, you’ve heard the news. The Supreme Court is poised to issue a ruling on the “dignity of life” with respect to the use of animal testing for new drugs and food ingredients.
The case of Agrium Inc. v. Drug Enforcement Administration is being watched with keen interest by consumers and drugmakers nationwide. The case revolves around how the government can go so far as to regulate the use of animals for testing drugs and new foods.
The Supreme Court has been hearing a series of cases dealing with issues of animal rights, including whether “sentience” is a necessary component of a human’s dignity. The drug cases in particular have garnered significant attention given the fact that they are being heard before the nation’s highest court.
The court has already held that a drug test on animals is subject to FDA regulation. But the case before the Supreme Court is different in that the court has been asked to say whether the FDA’s drug standards for drugs and foods — a process involving more than 100 FDA procedures — comply with the constitutional requirement of the dignity of life.
In a nutshell, the case questions whether the FDA can regulate a drug test on animals. The FDA defines animals as animals, like caged rats and mice, used in testing drug efficacy. The court will find that the FDA can regulate animals used in drug testing.
A drug is one of the most regulated substances in business. It is typically the first substance introduced into commerce. In the last several decades, the regulatory process for new drugs has grown to include testing in animals, including testing the drug’s efficacy in a rat or mouse model, and testing in humans.
Although the use of rats and mice in testing new drugs have been used as a method of increasing the efficiency of testing and drug approvals, the FDA and drug companies have come under intense criticism in recent years. One in particular was the report by the FDA’s own inspector general that the agency had “repeatedly failed to ensure the integrity of scientific research on animals” since 2008. This, according to the agency, “could have affected the safety and effectiveness of the drug products in