History of experiments on animals began since the time of the anatomist Andreas Vesalius (XVII century) when experiments on animals (vivisection, from Latin vivus, meaning «alive» and sectio, meaning «cutting», literally «cutting the living tissue») were conducted without anesthesia and were extremely cruel. Nowadays use of laboratory animals considerably differs from that in the time of the first experiments and is regulated by certain legal enactments.
The aim of the second part of our work is analysis of legal aspects of using animals in in vivo experiments, in particular, provision of them with adequate anesthesiological support. Normative acts regulating principles of work with laboratory animals in different stages of an experiment are considered: animal care, inclusion into experiment, implementation of experiment, withdrawal of animals from the experiment and determination of animals’ fate after the experiment. International and Russian regulatory framework on this issue, in particular, such documents as European Convention for the Protection of Vertebrate Animals Used for Experimental and Other Scientific Purposes (March 18, 1986, Strasburg), Directive 2010/63/EU on Protection of Animals Used for Scientific Purposes, etc., are considered.
Conclusion. At present there exists a sufficient amount of normative enactments regulating implementation of in vivo experimental research. However, most of them require further finalization taking into account recent innovations in medical science and technology. The problem of control of execution of the normative enactments which are in most cases advisory rather than mandatory, remains actual.
Andreas Vesalius and Thomas Willis: Their Anatomic Brain Illustrations and Illustrators