plantation to humans of animal tissue and organs falls into the fourth. Experimentation includes vivisection (the cutting or performing of surgery on live animals) as well as other procedures, ranging from behavioral experiments to the transplanting of animal organs to human recipients.
On the one hand, animal experimentation is credited with a host of accomplishments that have either extended the life span of the human race or in some measure improved the quality of human life. Of the 76 Nobel Prizes awarded in physiology or medicine between 1990 and 1988, 54 were for advances and discoveries made through the use of experimental animals--among these, the use of dogs to document the relationship between cholesterol and heart disease (Reichenbach 227-228). On the other hand, animal experimentation has been criticized as being arrogant, unnecessary, and cruel. In the 1980s, the animal-rights movement was transformed from a proselytizing lobby to an aggressive force of protesters that has not been hesitant to use coercion and other questionable tactics to pursue its ends (Bender and Leone 220-226).
The subject of how religious traditions have shaped the modern biomedical ethos is spread throughout countless tomes in many languages. It is possible, however, to point to a smattering of relevant themes in the religions that have had the most influence on animal research in the western hemisphere.
One would hardly expect to find reflections about animal experimentation in the primary Christian authority, the Bible. However, the theological rationale for using animals to serve human interests is ubiquitous (Baird and Rosenbaum 11) and would appear to stem from at least three Christian themes. Two are found in commandments: "Love thy God with all thy heart" and "thou shalt not kill." In Protestant ethics, the love for people (expressed in another commandment) and the love for all living creatures are seen as following from the ...