What have you dissected????

Love Coronado · Apr 12, 2007

I don't think a cadaver would bother me, it just the silly living frog!

Oh I read somewhere that some university has had the same cadaver for the last 10 years. The students just use it to observe. The teacher puts her hand inside the cadaver and pulls on the muscles to show how they move the feet. I think that would be cool, and like I said I had no problem with the cat we just finished up, or the pig, or worm and squid in High School, and I am looking forward to the brain, sheep heart, eyeball...whatever else comes my way. I just looked at my lab book, and the pithed frog is just a demonstration. So maybe I won't feel so responsible!!!

aerorunner80, ADN, BSN, MSN, APRN · Apr 12, 2007

:eek: The only things we dissected in my classes were sheep brains. We also got to do some blunt dissection on our cadavers if our instructor asked us to. That was really cool but tiring. Oh yeah! We got to dissect the eye out of one of our cadavers and then we dissected the eye itself!

When I was in high school we did frogs, earthworms, cats, and other things that I can't remember right now but we never did anything like that in college.

catzy5 · Apr 12, 2007

seriously (not trying to be a butt or anything), but guilt over a fetal pig, yet no mention of guilt over a cadaver?
reallly???

well i am a budinski now but a cadaver chooses to donate his/her body to science the pig doesn't get a choice.

Stubbleuffagus · Apr 12, 2007

A fetal pig... Lucy is what we call her, and Bob our Cadaver. Then we had the fresh cow heart (looked like on big juicy steak:lol2:)....and the sheep brain and sheep heart.

smk1, LPN · Apr 12, 2007

We just finished up the lab test for muscles, and had to say good bye to our lab cat Mr. Biggelsworth (yes we named him). I had no problem with the dissection. I am also taking general Bio, and have already dissected a fetal pig. Still no biggie. BUT I looked ahead in our lab book, and our next lab is dissecting a Live Frog!! We have to see it's heart beating and then take the heart out. Now, I think I didn't have any problem with the other stuff because it was already dead. We still have to dissect a brain and something else, but I am feeling bad for the living, breathing, frog. Anyone else feel this way? I have always thought I was tough, but I feel bad for a little hopping frog. Just Wondering.
Ribbit!

Sheep's eyes, Pig kidney, sheep's brain, heart's. THose were the things that we got individually. The bulk of our education came from 4 human cadavers and we all were very thankful to have real human bodies to work on and learn from.

danissa, LPN, LVN · Apr 12, 2007

So--is this what happens in the US? Nurses disect corpses during training?

I'm a UK midwife--never even SAW a corpse during my training--never mind cut one up! :uhoh3:

CiCigirl · Apr 12, 2007

well i am a budinski now but a cadaver chooses to donate his/her body to science the pig doesn't get a choice.

the point i was trying to make it this:

i don't seriously think a pig "savors the sunlight".

i don't seriously think a fetal pig has any more right to life than an adult pig.

i don't think that, if given the choice and the mental capacity to make the choice, a pig would choose to donate their body to medical science so that nsg students could use them to develop the skills and knowledge they need to save human lives.

no, don't get me wrong. i'm not anti-pig (isn't it rediculous that this even must be said???)

but i am pro-human.

and even though i'm pro-human and have in the past felt a little bit bad about the animals i've dissected for the sake of my education, i understand that it was necessary to do the things that i did (the things that we will all do in order to become nurses, including you) in order to obtain the knowledge i will need to help save human lives.

and i also recognize that it might be a little bit hypocritical of me to feel bad about the pig i dissected for my education, yet not even one ounce of remorse for the one who was sacrificed to make the bacon i happily ate from my plate this morning.

that's all i was saying.

additionally i recognize that it's probably very likely that a lot of the cadavers that are donated to medical science are done so by families out of necessity (not all, but i suspect a significant portion). maybe their families couldn't afford to pay for the funeral, couldn't carry the financial burden of the $5-10k it takes to bury someone if the person died without life insurance.

you're right, a pig doesn't get the choice whether or not to be dissected. a pig also doesn't get the choice what farm it will be raised on, or whether it will be turned into hickory smoked bacon or peppercorn bacon. heck, a pig doesn't even get the choice as to what it's going to eat everyday if it's raised on a farm. are you going to lobby for the pig to have a right to all these choices too???

in my book, people come first allllllll other animals, second. in fact, animals have been for years and years and years used for medical research that has provided the cures and answers to countless diseases. and frankly, i'm glad for it.

i think about what if it were my child, or husband or mother or father whose life were on the line and couldn't be saved because we as a people had become so idealistic, so altruistic and self-sacrificing that we were not willing to humanely use animals to find cures to diseases that we need to save someone we love.

and if it came down to it, don't think that i wouldn't happily sacrifice one of them to save one of us.

if you become a nurse and i happen to encounter you as a sick patient i would hope that you feel the same way. after all, i'd hate for you to be on the way to work where i was in the icu and walk down the sidewalk after a heavy rain and step on a earthworm. i might die b/c you had to stop and have some memorial to commemorate the life of the worm.

if it were your mother in the icu i would squash the worm and keep on going b/c i recognize the value of a human life.

just my thoughts....

i mean---let's keep it real people. let's not lull ourselves into a false sense of security thinking that we do no harm to anything else on the planet as we live our lives. we all drive cars that kill the ozone layer, we all step on ants as we walk down the sidewalk, we all use electricity in our homes that probably came from the burning of coal (also killing the ozone layer), most of us eat meat, and if not meat, then fruits and vegetables that were imported from a country where the workers were underpaid and overworked. at the end of the day i just hope that i have done more good for the people and planet than harm. and that's how i sleep at night. and that's how i get over the animals i've dissected.

geeeeez! i'm exhausted now. take care. :trout:

stpauligirl · Apr 12, 2007

the point i was trying to make it this:
i don't seriously think a pig "savors the sunlight".
i don't seriously think a fetal pig has any more right to life than an adult pig.
i don't think that, if given the choice and the mental capacity to make the choice, a pig would choose to donate their body to medical science so that nsg students could use them to develop the skills and knowledge they need to save human lives.
no, don't get me wrong. i'm not anti-pig (isn't it rediculous that this even must be said???)
but i am pro-human.
and even though i'm pro-human and have in the past felt a little bit bad about the animals i've dissected for the sake of my education, i understand that it was necessary to do the things that i did (the things that we will all do in order to become nurses, including you) in order to obtain the knowledge i will need to help save human lives.
and i also recognize that it might be a little bit hypocritical of me to feel bad about the pig i dissected for my education, yet not even one ounce of remorse for the one who was sacrificed to make the bacon i happily ate from my plate this morning.
that's all i was saying.
additionally i recognize that it's probably very likely that a lot of the cadavers that are donated to medical science are done so by families out of necessity (not all, but i suspect a significant portion). maybe their families couldn't afford to pay for the funeral, couldn't carry the financial burden of the $5-10k it takes to bury someone if the person died without life insurance.
you're right, a pig doesn't get the choice whether or not to be dissected. a pig also doesn't get the choice what farm it will be raised on, or whether it will be turned into hickory smoked bacon or peppercorn bacon. heck, a pig doesn't even get the choice as to what it's going to eat everyday if it's raised on a farm. are you going to lobby for the pig to have a right to all these choices too???
in my book, people come first allllllll other animals, second. in fact, animals have been for years and years and years used for medical research that has provided the cures and answers to countless diseases. and frankly, i'm glad for it.
i think about what if it were my child, or husband or mother or father whose life were on the line and couldn't be saved because we as a people had become so idealistic, so altruistic and self-sacrificing that we were not willing to humanely use animals to find cures to diseases that we need to save someone we love.
and if it came down to it, don't think that i wouldn't happily sacrifice one of them to save one of us.
if you become a nurse and i happen to encounter you as a sick patient i would hope that you feel the same way. after all, i'd hate for you to be on the way to work where i was in the icu and walk down the sidewalk after a heavy rain and step on a earthworm. i might die b/c you had to stop and have some memorial to commemorate the life of the worm.
if it were your mother in the icu i would squash the worm and keep on going b/c i recognize the value of a human life.
just my thoughts....
i mean---let's keep it real people. let's not lull ourselves into a false sense of security thinking that we do no harm to anything else on the planet as we live our lives. we all drive cars that kill the ozone layer, we all step on ants as we walk down the sidewalk, we all use electricity in our homes that probably came from the burning of coal (also killing the ozone layer), most of us eat meat, and if not meat, then fruits and vegetables that were imported from a country where the workers were underpaid and overworked. at the end of the day i just hope that i have done more good for the people and planet than harm. and that's how i sleep at night. and that's how i get over the animals i've dissected.
geeeeez! i'm exhausted now. take care. :trout:

welcome to the crazy world of ethics