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Every spring Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine (CWRU) uses dogs in two fourth year surgery/anatomy electives. At the end of the classes, the dogs are killed.
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CWRU is one of only six U.S. medical schools (out of 125) that continues to use live animals to instruct surgery courses. About 90 percent of U.S. medical schools have eliminated all animal use in standard courses.
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Since the start of 2006, 10 U.S. medical schools—including Duke University—have stopped using animals in their courses.
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CWRU is the only medical school in Ohio (out of six allopathic schools and one osteopathic school) still following this archaic practice.
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Advances in medical simulation technology and computer-based interactive learning, increased awareness of ethical concerns, and progressive curriculum reform recognizing the need for human-based learning are a few of the many factors that have contributed to the replacement of live animals in medical education.
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On March 10, 2007, the American Medical Student Association (AMSA) House of Delegates voted unanimously in favor of a resolution stating that AMSA “strongly encourages the replacement of animal laboratories with non-animal alternatives in undergraduate medical education.”
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The American College of Surgeons has established the Accredited Education Institutes and implemented surgery program curriculum reforms that exclude the use of animals. This initiative is endorsed by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education in a letter stating its support for the replacement of animal use in surgery programs. If graduate surgery programs do not require the use of animals, certainly medical school surgery courses do not.
- CWRU faculty claim the use of live animals is “essential in order to provide an opportunity for students to develop the proper techniques required in surgery.” Yet the school’s own students are not required to participate in the animal labs. No objective information has been presented suggesting that CWRU graduates are equivalent or superior to graduates of schools that do not use animals.
