ABSTRACT
The root question, whether animal experimentation is, for certain benign purposes of man, permissible, has long since been answered in the affirmative. It is permissible, whether or not you happen to think it is moral. The correctness of the answer is not in doubt, except among a small number of committed philosophers, abstract moralists and eccentrics with minds of a certain cast. We do not say they are wrong; for that would be presumptuous. We merely say that, for the time being, they have lost the argument. And though the question is a proper one to be re-examined from time to time, the answer is likely to remain the same for a while. It will be ratified and legitimised by the law which as a community we make for ourselves, with the intention to observe it, and trusting others to observe it also.1
