vivisection

vivisection, operation on a living animal for experimental rather than healing purposes; more broadly, all experimentation on live animals. It is opposed by many as cruelty and supported by others on the ground that it advances medicine; a middle position is to oppose unnecessarily cruel practices, use alternatives when possible, and restrict experiments to necessary medical research (as opposed, for example, to cosmetics testing). Surgery on animals without anesthesia was once common; many people, most significantly René Descartes, claimed that animals did not really feel pain. The testing of certain chemicals on animals to find the lethal dose still occurs; however, the development of alternative methods (computer simulations, tissue culture tests) has led some funding agencies and research organizations to ban these tests. An antivivisection movement in the late 19th century broadened its scope to include prevention of all cruelty to animals and later gave rise to the animal rights movement.