Vivisection: Large Print Edition

What are the moral limits of scientific experimentation?

In Vivisection, physician and social reformer Albert Leffingwell examines the ethical and scientific arguments used to justify experiments on living animals. Drawing upon medical evidence, public records, and contemporary testimony, he challenges the assumption that the pursuit of knowledge can excuse suffering inflicted in the laboratory.

Leffingwell does not oppose science itself. Rather, he argues that scientific progress must be guided by conscience and that compassion should never be sacrificed in the name of discovery. With clarity and conviction, he explores questions that reach far beyond the laboratory: the responsibilities of humanity toward other living creatures, the relationship between power and justice, and the moral foundations of a civilized society.

One of the most influential voices of the early animal welfare movement, Leffingwell offers a thoughtful and compelling examination of a controversy that continues to provoke debate today.

As Jeremy Bentham famously wrote: "The day may come when the rest of animal creation may acquire those rights which never could have been withholden from them but by the hand of tyranny."