Royal Naval Personnel Research Committee on submarine physiology. " Views on animals Paton was a vivisection activist and an opponent of animal rights. His 1984 book Man and Mouse: Animals in Medical Research was a defence of the use of animals in medical research. It was revised in 1993. According to Paton, a distinction should be made between moral agents and moral objects. Humans are moral agents who can accept duties and claim rights whilst animals are moral objects who have no duties, cannot make claims and do not have rights. Selected publications Vivisection, Morals, Medicine: Commentary from a Vivisecting Professor of Pharmacology (1983) Man and Mouse: Animals in Medical Research (1984, 1993) References 1917 births 1993 deaths Alumni of New College, Oxford British pharmacologists Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Critics of animal rights Fellows of Balliol College, Oxford Fellows of the Royal Society Knights Bachelor People educated at Repton School People from Hendon Vivisection activists