#lab ethics

What Happened to the Vacanti Mouse? 

A few years ago I wrote an article about the Ear Mouse, based on a famous image of a mouse with a scaffolding shaped like a human ear on their back. I interviewed one of the scientists who created it for about an hour and wrote some of the answers in an interview for Newsweek. I’m so interested in the Vacanti Mouse, it’s the inspiration for my icon (and shirts)

Lately there have been some viral posts and videos saying that the scientists removed the ear from the mouse and he lived out his life happily. That’s not true, but I think that myth may be my fault. 

Here’s a clip from my interview with Joseph Vacanti: 

What happened to the mouse in the photo? Many people had children asking those questions, and so what we would say is, we removed the ear, and the mouse lived out a happy, normal life. It was not harmed by our work, so I think that's the answer that I would like to give. In the world of medicine, there's a massive controversy about the use of animals. We're hoping to eliminate the need to use animals because we can now generate human structures and tissues using human cells and we can study them without the use of animals. That's our long-term goal.

It didn't actually live happily ever after, did it? Of course it did. The happy little mouse. That little mouse was very pleased that he could contribute in some way and make people's lives better.

So, some are reporting that “the mouse lived out a happy, normal life.” Perhaps I should have been clearer, or added an author’s note here. But it’s wrong. The scientists/lab workers killed all the mice. I know this because: 1) The whole statement was very wink-wink-nudge-nudge. Like he’s sure I know he/his employees killed them. “That is the answer I would like to give,” not “that is the truth.”

2) Mice used in experiments generally don’t just live out their lives afterwards, the standard is to kill them. So the Vacanti lab didn’t have to make a choice whether to kill them, it’s just standard. (If you have a problem with the standard, talk to ethics committees, not lab workers who are following the rules those committees set!)

3) The originally published paper, on pages 300-301, specifically states “Removal of the skin envelope from Group 1 specimens after sacrifice...” Sacrifice means being killed.