Word meaning help? Vivisection?

Question

What does vivisection mean?

Answer 1

The act or practice of cutting into or otherwise injuring living animals, especially for the purpose of scientific research.

[Latin vīvus, alive; see vivify + (DIS)SECTION.]

World of the Body: vivisection

From the Latin vivi, living, and sectio, cutting, vivisection, strictly speaking, means cutting live tissues. As such it could be applied to any surgical procedure, including human operations. In practice the word is often used pejoratively as a synonym for experiments on animals, implying cruelty such as the infliction of operative techniques without the use of an anaesthetic, which even if it were not abhorrent to the investigator would be both impracticable and against the law. The term is sometimes used also to refer to any procedure involving laboratory animals — not only operations that are carried out within the law under anaesthetic, but also investigations that do not involve surgery, such as changing diets or giving injections. In the UK all laboratory procedures on vertebrates (and also on the octopus) are regulated by the Home Office, under the 1986 Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act, which superceded the 1876 Cruelty to Animals Act.

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: vivisection

Operation on a living animal for experimental rather than healing purposes; more broadly, all experimentation on live animals. It is opposed by many as cruelty and supported by others on the ground that it advances medicine; a middle position is to oppose unnecessarily cruel practices, use alternatives when possible, and restrict experiments to necessary medical research (as opposed, for example, to cosmetics testing). Surgery on animals without anesthesia was once common; many people, most significantly Rene Descartes, claimed that animals did not really feel pain. Testing chemicals on animals to find the lethal dose still occurs despite alternative methods (computer simulations, tissue culture tests). An antivivisection movement in the late 19th century broadened its scope to include prevention of all cruelty to animals and later gave rise to the animal rights movement.

Columbia Encyclopedia: vivisection

(vĭv'ĭsĕk'shən) , dissection of living animals for experimental purposes. The use of the term in recent years has been expanded to include all experimentation on living animals, rather than just dissection alone. The practice contributed to the outstanding progress that was made in the 17th cent. by William Harvey in understanding the circulation of the blood. However, the use of research animals in the laboratory did not become widespread in Europe until the 19th cent. In 1896, when the National Institute of Health originated in the United States, it began to take an active role in encouraging proper care and use of laboratory animals. Since 1945, the National Society for Medical Research has tried to explain to the public the nature and necessity of experimental procedures on animals.

Science Dictionary: vivisection

(viv-uh-sek-shuhn, viv-uh-sek-shuhn)

The cutting up or dissection of animals, including anesthetized live animals, in scientific research. Vivisection is also a general term for the use of animals as subjects in laboratory experiments, especially in the development of new medical techniques and drugs.

Vivisection, as well as the general use of animals in medical research, is a target of protest by animal rights advocates.

Veterinary Dictionary: vivisectionist

One who practices or defends vivisection.

Etymologically, vivisection refers to the dissection of, or any cutting or surgery upon, a living organism. More generally, it is used to describe any invasive experiment upon living animals.

For vivisection on animals, see Animal testing.

For the history of animal vivisection, see History of animal testing

For vivisection on human beings, see Human experimentation.

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Answer 2

Vivisection is a noun word that means the practice of performing operations on live animals for the purpose of experimentation or scientific research.  

Answer 3

Vivisection is surgery conducted upon a living organism, typically animals with a central nervous system. A broader interpretation includes non-behavioural experimental research involving living animals.[1] In this interpretation, the term is preferred by those opposed to research using animals, as there it implies otherwise avoidable suffering. In the scientific community, vivisection for living tissue study has been superseded by modern techniques, and the term "animal experimentation" is applied to all research involving animal studies, regardless of mortality. Non-arbitrary research requiring vivisection techniques that cannot be met through other means are subject to an external ethics review in conception and implementation. Although vivisection is restricted to cancer and other malignant disease research, the distinction between humanitarian and commercial goals remains a contentious issue.