Anti-Vivisection and the Profession of Medicine in Britain: A Social History (The Palgrave Macmillan Animal Ethics Series)

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book explores the social history of the anti-vivisection movement in Britain from its nineteenth-century beginnings until the 1960s. It discusses the ethical principles that inspired the movement and the socio-political background that explains its rise and fall. Opposition to vivisection began when medical practitioners complained it was contrary to the compassionate ethos of their profession. Christian anti-cruelty organizations took up the cause out of concern that callousness among the professional classes would have a demoralizing effect on the rest of society. As the nineteenth century drew to a close, the influence of transcendentalism, Eastern religions and the spiritual revival led new age social reformers to champion a more holistic approach to science, and dismiss reliance on vivisection as a materialistic oversimplification. In response, scientists claimed it was necessary to remain objective and unemotional in order to perform the experiments necessary for medical progress. Front Matter ....Pages i-xxi Introduction (A. W. H. Bates)....Pages 1-12 Vivisection, Virtue, and the Law in the Nineteenth Century (A. W. H. Bates)....Pages 13-41 Have Animals Souls? The Late-Nineteenth Century Spiritual Revival and Animal Welfare (A. W. H. Bates)....Pages 43-67 A New Age for a New Century: Anti-Vivisection, Vegetarianism, and the Order of the Golden Age (A. W. H. Bates)....Pages 69-98 The National Anti-Vivisection Hospital, 1902–1935 (A. W. H. Bates)....Pages 99-132 The Research Defence Society: Mobilizing the Medical Profession for Materialist Science in the Early-Twentieth Century (A. W. H. Bates)....Pages 133-167 State Control, Bureaucracy, and the National Interest from the Second World War to the 1960s (A. W. H. Bates)....Pages 169-193 Conclusion (A. W. H. Bates)....Pages 195-201 Back Matter ....Pages 203-217

animal ethics; anti-cruelty; animal experimentation