Experimenting with Humans and Animals From Galen to Animal Rights Anita Guerrini

Experimentation on animals, and particularly on 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 Experimenting with Humans and Animals, Anita Guerrini looks at the history of these practices from vivisection in ancient Alexandria to present-day battles over animal right and medical research employing human subjects. Guerrini offers in-depth discussion of key historical episodes in the use of living beings in science and medicine, including the discovery of bloods 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 movements, and current debates over gene therapy. In this highly accessible text, we learn how our understanding of animal's capacity to feel pain has evolved - and how the ethical values of science seldom stay far from those of the society in which scientists live and work. Anita Guerrini is an associate professor on the program in environmental studies and the department of history at the University of California, Santa Barbara.