Vivisection

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page. (March 2009)

From Latin vivus ("alive") + sectio ("cutting"), Vivisection is surgery conducted upon a living organism, typically animals with a central nervous system, to directly view living internal structure for purposes other than the health of the subject.

A broader interpretation includes non-behavioural experimental research involving living animals.^[1] This is the intended meaning when used by those opposed to animal experimentation in general. In the scientific community, vivisection for living tissue study has been superseded by modern techniques.^{[citation needed]}

Non-arbitrary research requiring vivisection techniques that cannot be met through other means are often subject to an external ethics review in conception and implementation, and in many jurisdictions, use of anaesthesia is legally mandated for any surgery likely to cause pain to any vertebrate.^[2] However, in the U.S., the Animal Welfare Act places no restriction on the kinds of experiments that can be performed on animals; it only concerns conditions in which animal are kept and cared for.^[3]

[edit] See also

• Dissection
• History of animal testing
• Human subject research
• Animal rights
• Unit 731
• The Island of Doctor Moreau

[edit] Notes

• "Paixao, RL; Schramm, FR. Ethics and animal experimentation: what is debated? Cad. Saúde Pública, Rio de Janeiro, 2007"
• Yarri, Donna. The Ethics of Animal Experimentation, Oxford University Press U.S., 2005