Is this ethical? :
the psychology department is requesting permission from your committee to use 10 rats per semester for demonstrations in a physiological psychology class. the students will work in groups of three: each group will be given a rat. the students will first perform surgery on the rats. each animal with be anesthetized. following standard surgical procedures, an incision will be made in the scalp and two holes drilled in the animal's skull. electrodes will be lowered into the brain to create lesions on each side. the animals will then be allowed to recover. several weeks later, the effects of destroying this part of the animal's brain will be tested in a shuttle avoidance task in which animals will learn when to cross over an electrified grid. the instructor admits the procedure is a common demonstration and that no new information will be gained from the experiment. she argues, however, that students taking a course in psychology must have the opportunity to engage in small animal surgery to see firsthand the effects of brain lesions.