U of R, Sinai, Duke, CWRU

[IAmAUser]

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[xSTALLiONx]

I am going to preface this by saying that I am not starting this thread to start any kind of ethical debate. However, I am someone who has strong feelings about using animals in medical education (i.e. dog labs, surgery practice, etc.) Of the schools I am applying to, four are listed as using live animals in their curricula. Does anyone know the specific details of how animals are used in medical training at these institutions, and if participation is required? The schools I am wondering about are Rochester, Mount Sinai, Case Western, and Duke.

Thanks! 🙂

I plan to develop a way to splice human kidney and other organs genes into pig's genome. After the pigs I have grown are sufficent in size, I will harvest them for their organs and sell them to patients needing them via an eBay dutch auction.

 

[W222]

Well let me start by saying that those who dont support animal testing should stop taking 90% of all medications and just let the disease process in the human body take its course. You wouldnt be alive today if it weren't for animal testing and no matter how far we advance cell-culture and in vitro technique nothing is proven until it has been tested in an animal.

This being said, I know what the animal at Case Western is composed of and how it is run. It is a ferrrit lab that tests the pharmacological properties of several drugs and hormones on the body. The lab is useful is showing the actual effect of a drug, which is something that a computer really cant show you due to one aspect, variability. Case was moving away from using the lab and I was told they actually cut it due to the complaints of inexperienced people like yourself.

 

[davedavedave]

im at columbia undergrad, and researchers at the undergrad and p&s campuses are the absolute worst when it comes to treatment of animals, peta is always up our a$$es

 

[TommyGunn04]

I'm currently a 3rd year at Duke, so I've been through the basic science year and the clinical year. Here's what I remember about animal use.

-we had a couple of labs during physiology wherein we dissected cow hearts and pig hearts
-microanatomy slides from the 70's and older were sometimes from animals
-during the surgery clerkship there are a series of "pig labs" where you actually operate on anesthetized pigs. In these labs we did things like insert chest tubes, perform a splenectomy, do a bowel anastamosis, etc. They were undoubtedly one of the most valuable experiences of the surgery clerkship because we learned crucial lifesaving techniques, and got to practice them in a somewhat realistic way.

Perhaps this doesn't make a difference for someone who is against animal research in principle, but from the perspective of being humane I can assure you that the pigs were all put on ventilatory support and given inhaled anesthetics. They were later euthanized using a rapid acting, injected solution, and according to a stringent protocol where particular attention is payed to whether or not they appear to be in pain (monitoring heart rate, O2 saturation, etc.).

HOWEVER, the above being said, some of my classmates who were against this sort of animal use simply didn't participate in the pig lab, for example. So it's definitely possible to be a student at Duke and avoid it. I guess it therefore all comes down to whether or not you want to be at a place that condones it, for by being here and paying tuition, you're a part of it as well, regardless of whether or not you participate.