The University of Tennessee College of Medicine in Chattanooga (UTCMC) has finally banned the use of animals for surgical training.
Almost 32,000 people had signed a Care2 petition that demanded for the school to stop the use of animals for surgical training. Clearly, this petition helped a lot towards the medical school’s decision; however, it was also stated that the use of animals “has ceased to provide surgical skills training for medical students using live animal models”.
Earlier in May, 2016, John Hopkins University had quit using live animals for surgical training, making The University of Tennessee College of Medicine the last medical school practising surgical training on live models in America.
This news has shown us that there has been satisfying progress towards eliminating the use of animals for educational purposes. “With the decision by leaders at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine to eliminate animal use in the Surgical Skills Laboratory, we are entering the post-animal era in medical student education,” said the director of academic affairs at PCRM, Dr. John Pippin.
According to Dr. Pippin, about 300 pigs were used for student training every year. “It gets animals out of harm’s way, and it allows medical school students to learn they can be great doctors without harming animals,” said Dr. Pippin. “Many thousand of animals a year that would have been killed to train medical students will not be.”
In one of PCRM’s press releases, it was stated that “[animals] are inadequate and often misleading stand-ins for humans. Training students with animals also gave trainees the false impression that the use of animals was fundamental in the field of science”.
Clearly, trainees can now show their students that an animal does not have to be harmed for the education of students. With every medical school in America no longer practising surgical training on animals, it shows that there is no reason for animals to be hurt in this department.
#crueltyfree #education #medicaltraining
