The doctors carefully observe the patient's last heartbeat as she dies. Banned in the United Kingdom, live-animal labs remain on the physiology, pharmacology, or surgery curricula at almost half of the 126 U.S. medical schools, a shocking relic of an earlier era. The laboratory diehards claim the labs introduce medical students to practical aspects of their profession. However, they merely demonstrate already-known reactions to common drugs. The practical value of these exercises fades even more when one realizes there are no second chances in the dog labs.
Thoughtful physicians concur, the best way to teach humane medicine is with humans.
We used to have a course. I stopped it completely. At Harvard, for example, after a special preparatory lecture, students go to an operating room in a Harvard-affiliated hospital and observe actual cardiac surgery. Financially, alternatives to dog labs make sense, too. Money used to obtain, feed, house, and prepare the dogs and other animals for such labs could instead buy the latest interactive computer software, manikins, films, and videodiscs to supplement standard lectures, discussion groups, and readings.