Antivivisectionism

Abstract

Antivivisectionism is a widely accepted label for uncompromising opposition to the use of live animals in scientific research. No area of human activity affecting members of other species is more controversial than animal experimentation, or more likely to trigger reactions from advocates of animal rights and animal welfare. Vivisection literally means the cutting up of living organisms for the purpose of study or research. Historically, this is an accurate description of the way in which experiments upon, generally, unanesthetized animals were performed. Antivivisectionism became a very strong movement in 19th century Victorian England, where increasing attention was being paid to animal pain and suffering, leading ultimately to passage of the Cruelty to Animals Act 1876, the world's first law specifically regulating animal research. By comparison with earlier centuries, relatively little of today's experimentation upon animals is of a highly invasive sort. But the word vivisection has persisted in the vocabulary of protest, taken on a wider meaning over time, and now denotes all procedures of scientific research that result in the injury and/or death of animals.