The Medical Aspect
Few words need be wasted on this. An anthology of names and opinions of physicians and researchers who, explicitly or indirectly, have denied any scientific or medical validity to vivisection make up the largest part of this book - 1000 DOCTORS (and many more) AGAINST VIVISECTION; so the question can be defined, at least, as controversial. But if one considers that all those who assign validity to the "animal model" system are people who derive a morbid satisfaction or a monetary gain from it, the question appears no longer controversial but understandable. Consider only these two examples.
Everything that Dr.Robert Lawson Tait (1845-1899), the giant of modern surgery, said and wrote about vivisection, which he had practiced in the early years of his medical studies, was a merciless endictment against it, for he considered it damaging not only to medical practice in general but also to the medical mind. He said:
"The position of vivisection as a method of research stands alone amongst the infinite variety of roads for the discovery of Nature's secrets as being open to strong prima facie objection. No one can urge the slightest ground for objection against the astronomer,the chemist, the electrician or the geologist in their ways of working; and the great commendation of all other workers is the comparative certainty of their results. But, for the physiologist, working upon a living animal, there are two strong objections: that he is violating a strong and widespread public sentiment, and that he tabulates results of the most uncertain and often contradictory kind."And in 1988, the [late] Prof. Robert S.Mendelsohn, M.D., of Chicago University, in his last syndicated Medical Newsletter, The People's Doctor, No.4, vol.12, wrote:"Despite the tendency of doctors to call modern medicine an 'inexact science', it is more accurate to say there is practically no science in modern medicine at all. Almost everything doctors do is based on a conjecture, a guess, a clinical impression, a whim, a hope, a wish, an opinion or a belief. In short, everything they do is based on anything but solid scientific evidence. Thus, today's Medicine is not a science at all, but a belief system. Beliefs are held by every religion, including the Religion of Modern Medicine."And the noxious effects of modern medicine, which Prof. Mendelsohn kept denouncing to mass audiences in books, articles, newsletters, conferences and on TV, are mostly attributable to the false methodology of animal research.