Experimentation on animals and particularly humans is often assumed to be a uniquely modern phenomenon. But
the ideas and attitudes that encourage the biological and medical sciences to experiment on living creatures date
from the earliest expression of Western thought. In Animal and Human Experimentation, Anita Guerrini looks at the
history of these practices from vivisection in ancient Alexandria to present-day battles over animal rights and
medical research employing human subjects.
Guerrini discusses in-depth key historical episodes in the use of living beings in science and medicine, including
the discovery of blood circulation, the development of smallpox and polio vaccines, and recent AIDS research. She
also explores the rise of the antivivisection movement in Victorian England, the modern animal rights movement,
and current debates over gene therapy. In this highly accessible text, we learn how our understanding of an animal's
capacity to feel pain has evolved. Guerrini reminds us that the ethical values of science seldom stray far from
those of the society in which scientists live and work.
Ethical questions about the use of animals and humans in research remain among the most vexing within both the
scientific community and society at large. These often rancorous arguments have gone on, however, with little awareness
of their historical antecedents. Animal and Human Experimentation offers students and concerned general readers
on every side of this debate a context within which to understand more fully the responsibility we all bear for
the suffering inflicted on other living beings in the name of scientific knowledge.
Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction
1 Bodies of Evidence: Experimentation and Philosophical Debate in Premodern Europe
2 Animals, Machines, and Morals
3 Disrupting God's Plan
4 Cruelty and Kindness
5 The Microbe Hunters
6 Polio and Primates
Conclusion: Human Rights, Animal Rights, and the Conduct of Science