Ethics in Medical Education

Help End the Live Animal Lab at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health

We need your help to end the live animal lab at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (UW). Twenty years ago, live animals were commonly used in physiology, pharmacology, and surgery classes at medical schools.

Today, UW is one of only five U.S. medical schools that continue to use live animals to instruct students in physiology courses. Every spring, the school uses four live pigs in a cardiovascular physiology lab as part of the first-year medical student physiology course.  The animals are anesthetized, cut open, and injected with various pharmaceuticals before being killed. In addition, one of the four pigs is experimented on and killed as a means of “rehearsal” for the teaching staff.

UW currently owns two Human Patient Simulator units from Medical Education Technologies, Inc. These programmable and interactive teaching tools provide a superior alternative to the use of live animals in the cardiovascular physiology lab.

Please call, e-mail, fax, or write a letter to the dean and vice chancellor for medical affairs, Robert N. Golden, M.D., and the senior associate dean for academic affairs
Susan E. Skochelak, M.D., M.P.H., and politely ask them to end the school’s live animal lab program. Being polite is the most effective way to help these animals. Send an automatic e-mail>

Robert N. Golden, M.D.
Dean and Vice Chancellor for Medical Affairs
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
4129 Health Sciences Learning Center
750 Highland Ave.
Madison, WI 53706
T: (608) 263-4900
F: (608) 265-3286
rngolden@wisc.edu

Susan E. Skochelak, M.D., M.P.H.
Sr. Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
4123 Health Sciences Learning Center
750 Highland Ave.
Madison, WI 53705-2221
P: (608) 265-6127
F: (608) 263-0104
seskochelak@wisc.edu

More than 90 percent of medical schools have eliminated live animal labs from their curricula altogether. Innovations in medical simulation technology, availability of alternatives, increased awareness of ethical concerns, and a growing acknowledgement that medical training must be human-focused have all facilitated this shift. Only 10 out of 154 allopathic and osteopathic medical schools in the United States still use live animals in their curricula, and two of those ten are ending their animal labs this semester.

Learn more about live animal labs and what you can do to help end them. If you have any questions, please contact Ryan Merkley at rmerkley@pcrm.org or 202-686-2210, ext. 336.

TAKE ACTION>

04/09/08

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