Abstract

The use of animals in scientific research appears to be almost as old as the beginning of medicine. For example, vivisection is already reported in the Corpus Hippocraticum (4th to 1st century BC) and by Galen (2nd century). The use of animals was strongly revived in the Renaissance. In the 19th century Claude Bernard advocated animal experimentation including vivisection as indispensable to the progress of medicine. Following the utilitarian English philosopher Jeremy Bentham who was a pioneer of the contemporary movement of animal ethics and stressed animals’ capacity for suffering and the human moral duty to protect them, several initiatives took place regarding animal experimentation and animal welfare. The Victoria Street Society was the first antivivisection society created in England in 1875.