Evidence of Lord Justice Fletcher Moulton before the Royal Commission on Vivisection, Wednesday, 24th July, 1907.

  • Moulton, John Fletcher Moulton, 1st baron, 1844-1921.
Date:
1908
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Evidence of Lord Justice Fletcher Moulton before the Royal Commission on Vivisection, Wednesday, 24th July, 1907. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    arc imposing a new duty upon the Home Office.—I know it. 12748. {Chairman.) You begin by supposing that he is a first-class man ?—Yes. 1 am quite prepared to say how I think the Home Office ought to decide. I think it ought to decide by the opinion of the leaders of the medical sciences, because 1 am satisfied that they j)0ssess, to an equal degree with any other body of men in the world, the moral qualities necessary to enable them to advise; and beyond question tliey possess, better than anybody else, the intellectual qualities and the qualities of knowledge which would enable them to do so efficiently; and a certificate of this kind should only be given where there was a con- sensus among the advisory body that the person hold such a position in medical science that he might have this general certificate. I now pass to those who have not attained to that position—which, as I have siiicl, would be an exceptional position, althougli I am happy to say that there are many men in England who would merit it. 1 think that in the case of younger men, or men who had not yet attained to the commanding position of those to whom I would give this general certificate, the lines of the jircscnt Act arc the right lines. I think it is reasonable to expect them to accc^it specific limitation of the type of experiment, of the scope of the research, and of the place where the experiment is to be performed, in order that there might be the security of the supervision of those who are over the laboratory, if there be any such persons, and also the security of inspection. Limitation of this kind, which the people would be bound to respect, and 1 believe would respect, should prevent all danger of abuse, which, though 1 think it would rarely become a