Vivisection is the dissection of living animals for scientific research and is sometimes more broadly used to describe all types of animal research. The dissection of living animals to learn more about how the body functions dates back to ancient times. Galen (ca 130-ca 200 A.D.) conducted numerous animal experiments (principally using the Barbary ape) to investigate animal physiology. For example, he would cut nerves to determine which nerves were associated with paralysis in different parts of the body. In the seventeenth century, William Harvey (1578-1657) conducted famous animal experiments that demonstrated how the blood circulates through the body. Despite the many advances made in medicine through vivisection, many people oppose animal experimentation. As a result, an ethical debate over animal experimentation has been ongoing for more than 200 years.

As the science of medicine grew so did the use of vivisection. In the mid-nineteenth century, Louis Pasteur (1822-...