Biomedical Education
Humane
alternatives to harmful animal use
Gruber FP &
Dewhurst DG. Alternatives to animal experimentation in biomedical education.
ALTEX: Alternatives to Animal Experimentation 2004;
21(Suppl 1): 33-48.
www.altex.ch.
Download (161 kb).
ABSTRACT
In education, it is important that students are not put in a position in
which they are forced to participate in animal experiments or to use dead
animals, killed especially for such purposes. Continued use of animal
experiments to demonstrate known facts or teach skills which can be taught
using nonanimal methods evidences only a lack of sensitivity towards
students who still maintain respect for life. In countries where animal
testing in education is reduced to close to zero, there is no evidence that
the students who are being trained are less capable or qualified. There are
sufficient alternatives available at relatively low-cost and with proven
educational efficacy to allow the vast majority of students who study
biomedical science courses to qualify without using animal experiments.
However, in many universities across Europe, there is still a resistance to
adoption of such methods amongst faculty. The global situation is probably
worse with animals still being used in high school teaching in some
countries such as the USA.
[A high quality summary of alternatives to harmful animal
use in biomedical education, with some European educational animal use
figures].