PCRM Takes On Duke’s Animal Labs

Susanna Walsh, M.D.

More than 80 percent of all U.S medical schools—including Harvard, Yale, and Stanford—have abandoned the archaic practice of using animals in undergraduate medical training in favor of cheaper and more humane teaching methods. Duke University School of Medicine is one of the few schools that have not yet made the switch. Its medical students are required to cut open live pigs to learn and practice surgical techniques—a gruesome, and unnecessary, process.

That’s why PCRM flew physician member Susanna Walsh, M.D., to Durham, North Carolina in late October to present the alternatives at a special luncheon seminar for Duke’s medical students. A clinical assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Boston University School of Medicine, Dr. Walsh has long been opposed to the use of animals in medical education. She shared her viewpoint and presented the alternatives to a lecture room filled with interested Duke students and staff.

Duke’s pig labs have been an ongoing source of controversy at the university, the subject of several critical columns in the school paper, and the focus of a hard-hitting PCRM ad campaign. Although Dr. Walsh’s lecture was well-received by the students, the administration still refuses to replace the animal labs.

We need your help to end these inhumane labs. Duke is the only top 10 medical school in the country still killing animals in its undergraduate medical training. Please write the dean and ask him to replace the labs.