The word euthanasia comes from the Greek terms eu (good) and thanatos (death). In the medical field, it is often defined as the act of painlessly killing an individual who is suffering from an incurable or painful disease. The Animal Welfare Act (AWA) and Animal Welfare Regulations (AWR), 9 CFR Part 1, §1.1 (U.S. Department of Agriculture 2002), define euthanasia as the humane destruction of an animal accomplished by a method that produces rapid unconsciousness and subsequent death without evidence of pain or distress, or a method that utilizes anesthesia produced by an agent that causes painless loss of consciousness. Although commonly used in the field of laboratory animal science to describe the killing of research animals at the end of an experiment, some assert that this is a misuse of the word (Pavlovic et al. 2011). According to this view, since animal experimentation is not in the best interest of the animal, the act of killing the animal cannot be considered euthanasia, and is instead part of the experimental process. Despite this criticism, the term euthanasia continues to be used in animal care and use programs in research, teaching, and testing.
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