The University's Medical Center announced yesterday it will eliminate the use of dogs in the Medical School's educational curriculum, following a heated community debate over the practice.
The controversy centered on the optional laboratory course, Emergency Life Saving Techniques, which used dogs to teach students how to tie sutures around blood vessels, insert chest tubes, open collapsed air passages and insert IV needles. After the procedures were performed, the dogs were put to sleep.
Arthur Garson Jr., vice president and dean of the Medical School, formed a review committee in February to respond to overwhelming pressure from students and community members to halt the practice of using live animals in the lab and implement the use of simulators.
The committee reviewed the Medical School's practices and educational techniques to determine the necessity of live animals in medical education.
"Our most important concern is the education we bring medical students," Garson said.
The committee's decision took new technology into account. The Medical School currently has a new simulator and Garson said it plans to obtain more.
"We will most definitely use some or all of those simulators," Garson said.
While the committee's recommendation applied only to dogs, the Medical School previously had temporarily suspended the use of animals in all teaching practices, and Garson said it will maintain the suspension pending further recommendations from the committee on the use of animals other than dogs in medical classes.
The most concentrated pressure to eliminate the use of animals in the lab has come from the Citizens for Humane Medicine. The group is currently focused on introducing alternative educational practices to the Medical School, said Rooshin Dalal, the group's co-founder and a University medical student.
Dalal said 18 percent of medical schools still use animals in the classroom.
The group's goal is to eliminate the use of all animals, not just dogs.
Dalal said his group will not be satisfied until all animals are taken off the curriculum.
"We will continue to educate the community and central Virginia about the alternatives," Dalal said.
Citizens for Humane Medicine has been working closely with the Washington, D.C.-based Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, Dalal said.
Megha Even, a research analyst from PCRM, said she is providing the Citizens for Humane Medicine with suggestions of alternative educational procedures the Medical School could use.
"There is absolutely no need for any animals in medical education," Evens said.
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