I'm taking Anatomy & Physiology next semester, and I've heard people mention having to dissect cats in the lab.
I don't eat meat or dairy, for moral reasons, and I would have extreme difficulty dissecting an animal. Is it a definite that I'll be faced with doing this? And if so, is there a way to request a substitute assignment on moral grounds?
Please don't insult my beliefs, I just want to know what the academic situation is. Thanks!
The school I took A&P at used cadavers. During A&P we would handle and label the muscles to understand origin and isertion. We would also use real skeletons and put them together and call out the bones. How could you learn HUMAN anatomy properly from a cat or a sheep? I could understand if it were a basic biology course or comparative anatomy.
Oh and I am vegan but had no problem dissecting cadavers. These people made a choice to donate themselves for educational purposes, the cats or whatever else did not...
the other thing to remember is that animals totally live in the moment. they don't plan and they don't fear death the way people do. no need to anthropomorphize them just because you loved "charlotte's web" and "ratatouille," .
(we have cats we adore...and in physiology lab i not only had to dissect frogs, i had to pith them, which means taking a dissection needle and inserting it into the foramen magnum and scrambling it around a little, (for some experiments) or kill them myself. we did fetal pigs and cats in anatomy.)
I can see the point with everyone saying that animals didn't "choose" to donate their bodies for science, therefore the logic is dissecting humans is more humane.
But that logic is flawed.
My breakfast didn't "choose" to end up on my plate either,
The cow didn't "choose" to to become part of my shoes, car, and purse.
Etc Etc
I have respect for all living things, but since I also eat meat, believe in medical research, and use many products made of animals, I believe that dissecting in class for the advancement of people is okay morally
The only people that should be able to use the argument that animals didn't "choose"
Are Vegans, whose lifestyle abstains from virtually every use of animal products
Everyone else would seem to be hypocritical...just because you don't witness the death of your thanksgiving turkey (without permission) it is now morally okay?
We use human cadavers at my school. In a sense it is an unpleasant thought to dissect a fellow human being, but I also view it as a valuable learning experience.
One way to view the dissection of a cat is that it is already dead. You are not harming it in any way.
Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
The only people that should be able to use the argument that animals didn't "choose"
Are Vegans, whose lifestyle abstains from virtually every use of animal products
?
*** Speaking as a former full time organic farmer and current part time farmer I disagree that vegans have a moral leg to stand on. Their lifestyle choice results is the deaths many, many animals as well. I could argue more than some of us who eat meat. Anyone who thinks that a vegan lifestyle does not result in the deaths of animal has never followed a combine (mechanical harvester) through a rice or wheat field. If you do you will find dozens of dead mice, rats, rabbits, various birds and the occasional deer fawn killed per acre during harvest. Follow the same combine through an organic field and you can change that dozens to hundreds. A couple pounds of organic rice may cost the lives of several dozen mammals and birds. Compair this to if I go out behind my house and kill a deer. For 50-60# of high qualiety food one animal died.
I feel your pain. I thought that I was going to have a problem with actually seeing the cat and then cut into it...but I didn't. Not because I'm not a cat lover or because I'm a vegan (I am not) but because the inside of a body (even though it isn't human) was for me, so intriguing it was intense. It was better for me to view it as a learning tool in order to familiarize myself with the location and function of certain veins, arteries, and organs.
Now, I can admit that there was one group in my class that happened upon a cat that was pregnant...while the other students ran to observe, I stayed at my table. It was difficult for me to observe something that others thought fascinating and perhaps educational because I have seen my lot of underdeveloped fetuses that didn't make it. I did not need nor wish to experience it again. Just keep in mind that there are other students with their own hang-ups like not wanting to see blood, or puke, or poo so your anxiety isn't unusual. As a clinical health care professional some things are unavoidable and they have to be dealt with in the best possible fashion.
You may be worried, and it is perfectly natural to be, but I think you will be just fine. Take a peek, make notes on your printed out diagram but make sure you familiarize yourself with what is being pointed out by the professor. The lab test I had included one of the cats used in class to identify certain veins and organs. I'm not certain if nursing school will require dissection as well, so maybe you won't have to deal with a dead animal again. Unfortunately, the working nurse has to deal with a different type of death. And no, of course the cat didn't volunteer its body but death is death-no matter the mammal. You just have to do the best you can, whether in AnP or on the floor.
I don't have a clue as to how expensive a cadaver is. I attended the local public 2 yr college and we had one. I still learned way more for the cadaver than from the cat and fetal pig from high school.
I do agree though, you have to just get through it or look for a school that uses a cadaver. Good luck!
Hey, veggienursenyc. I know this is an old thread, but I am wondering whether you ended up having to do the dissection. I'm registered for A&P I next semester and I'm also concerned about this. I'm vegan, too. I hope nursing (or nursing school) is treating you well!
No, I didn't have to do dissection. I showed up to class with all this documentation, prepared for a big battle, and the professor simply said, "okay." We didn't have any animal dissections- we had some human organ "prosections" and some slides, and the rest was anatomical models and pictures/slides.
I'm surprised to find that a lot of students and nurses just don't get the vegan thing.
If you have any trouble with the dissection issue, don't be afraid to stand up for your moral beliefs. But I think more and more people are realizing it's barbaric and using other teaching materials.
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DarkLotus
233 Posts
The school I took A&P at used cadavers. During A&P we would handle and label the muscles to understand origin and isertion. We would also use real skeletons and put them together and call out the bones. How could you learn HUMAN anatomy properly from a cat or a sheep? I could understand if it were a basic biology course or comparative anatomy.
Oh and I am vegan but had no problem dissecting cadavers. These people made a choice to donate themselves for educational purposes, the cats or whatever else did not...