Vivisection

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Etymologically, vivisection refers to the dissection of, or any cutting or surgery upon, a living animal. More generally, it is used to describe any invasive experiment upon living animals, or any live animal testing, typically for the purpose of physiological or pathological scientific investigation. <ref>Croce, Pietro. Vivisection or Science: An investigation into testing drugs and safeguarding health, Zed Books, 1999. ISBN 1-85649-733-X</ref><ref>"Vivisection," Encyclopaedia Britannica.</ref> The term is most commonly used by opponents of animal research. <ref name=OEDvivisection> "vivisection n." The New Oxford American Dictionary, second edition. Ed. Erin McKean. Oxford University Press, 2005. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Accessed 3 July 2006 (http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t183.e85331)</ref><ref> Michael Fox, "Deep and SHallow Vegetarianism and Animal Rights [1]</ref>

1 Animal testing
2 Human vivisection
3 Notes
4 See also
5 Further reading

[edit] Animal testing

Main article: Animal testing

Modern codes of practice like those issued by the U.S. National Institute of Health or the British Home Office require that major surgery on laboratory animals be performed under deep anaesthesia. Opponents of animal testing strongly contest the view that the law offers sufficient protection.

[edit] Human vivisection

Main article: Human experimentation

Vivisection has long been practiced on human beings. Herophilos, the "father of anatomy" and founder of the first medical school in Alexandria, was described by the church leader Tertullian as having vivisected at least 600 live prisoners. In recent times, the wartime programs of Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele and the Japanese military (Unit 731 and Dr. Fukujiro Ishiyama at Kyushu Imperial University Hospital) conducted human vivisections on concentration camp prisoners in their respective countries during WWII. In response to these atrocities, the medical profession internationally adopted the Nuremberg Code as a code of ethics. This code of ethics does not completely prohibit vivisection on humans.

Human volunteers can consent to be subjects for invasive experiments which may involve, for example, the taking of tissue samples (biopsies), or other procedures which require surgery on the volunteer. These procedures must be approved by ethical review, and carried out in an approved manner that minimizes pain and long term health risks to the subject [2]. Despite this, the term is generally recognized as pejorative: one would never refer to life-saving surgery, for example, as "vivisection." The use of the term vivisection when referring to procedures performed on humans almost always implies a lack of consent, as it does when it is practiced on non-humans.