Vegans and Dissections

If it’s in the curriculum I think they need to do it .

I agree with Darcy. There are a multitude of alternatives for dissections through high school. Once you're in college studying Biology, I don't think opting out would work out very well. But I'm not a college Biology instructor, so maybe there are ways to do it.

Also, it's not only dissection that would be a problem for many vegans, but things like slides from animal tissue, growth media based on animal products, and others. It's difficult to study Biology without using animals or animal products.

I think dissection is not always a great learning tool for young students who are not anticipating an educational track that requires the experience. Advanced students who will need the foundation for college level work, that's different. Kids who want to be doctors and won't dissect a fetal pig have a problem.

Any student with an ethical concern about dissection should be accommodated with an appropriate alternative project IMO, understanding the pros and cons of it. I think if you're old enough to have an ethical problem with dissection you're old enough to defend your position and advocate for your own alternative.

I'm not a vegan though, I just sympathize with kids who are upset that pigs or any living thing would be created just to die for kids to cut up and disrespect. I think even meat eaters can understand wanting to respect where their food came from.

Children should be able to opt out for medical reasons - such as a reaction to the formaldehyde the specimens are stored in.

Other than that I’ll agree with Darcy above m/afterhigh school-no opting out of that stuff. Your going to need to learn in order to do your chosen job. If that’s an issue then maybe choose another path. I had to due to the above mentioned reactions to formaldehyde. You gotta do what you gotta do but after high school the affect to others takes precedence over your wants/desires/choices

So not true. most of it is not done "humanely" at all.
Vivesection is not humane. Talking dogs from the animal shelter and operating on them while they are awake and seeing what happens and how long it takes for them to bleed to death when you sever certain arteries is not humane, neither is deliberately infecting them, cutting through nerves, paralysing, blinding them etc etc.
I could go on and on.

I was not vegetarian when I objected to rat dissection at high school, but didn't do it and still got an A. Even though my year the rats were already dead, in previous years they gassed them as the first part of the process.
I also objected morally to injecting latex into live frogs when doing biology at university, I got no credit for it, but just had to make sure that the rest of my marks where enough to cover that failure.
Enough has been done in the past and there is enough information and plenty of various methods (books, models and computers etc to enable students to get this information without doing the dissection themselves.

I completed my schooling and my nursing degree without doing a single dissection on any animal...and still would not do it today.
Humans are different, if you want to be a doctor then you will have to dissect a human cadaver BUT the difference here is that people deliberately donate their bodies for this exact purpose so you go in knowing that you are doing to them things that they agreed to while they were still alive.
In fact so many people left their bodies to science here for a time that donations where officially closed...(not sure if they still are but from my understanding there is still no shortage).

If you want to work in a specific field, for example a vet then it has to go with the territory because you need that practical experience in order the do surgery later on. I can understand on an intellectual level how people who choose professions need to and can do it...but it's still something I couldn't do and therefore excludes me from those professions.

But high school is totally different and so is a "general" biology class at university, they do not need to be actively killing or cutting into animals as they can get the exact same information in other ways. There simply is no need to do this.

Sometimes it is just who you are, it's fundamental in me and has been since I was a child, it's not a case if being a "special snowflake" at all, I just couldn't/wouldn't do it and there is pretty much nothing in a school setting that would have made me do it.

Yup, that.

My high school had a baby pig about the size of my hand, I was appalled but just watched my partner do all the work because the other 2 vegetarians in class got Fs for officially abstaining.

I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but a quick google tells me that the Animal Welfare Act, which is what is supposed to 'protect' animals used in research in the US, specifically does not cover purpose-bred rats, mice or birds, the most common laboratory animals. This Act is enforced by the US Department of Agriculture, however they have no jurisdiction over facilities using these animals not covered by the AWA. And they have a shockingly small number of inspectors able to monitor research institutions. It is difficult to find "unbiased" information about this because obviously the majority of sources on the internet are trying to raise awareness of this issue and improve legislation for animal protection.

As far as I can see, there is no *independent* agency which reviews and approves animal testing. An organisation which wants to use animal testing has to maintain an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee - however these committees are appointed BY THE ORGANISATION ITSELF and there is no oversight.

I do not think that animal testing is as well-regulated as you think.

like I said, I wasn't sure, but I had hoped there was, similar to humans. thanks, though.

your information doesn't change my opinion about how necessary I think it is, in some instances.

Formaldehyde is either. It used or used in very low doses as it is a known carcinogen... not good for teachers who are exposed year after year.

The high school I taught in no longer uses dissection because it doesn't support the bio curriculum we developed. But when we did, students who wanted to opt out for ethical reasons had to present me with an essay the week before. I then had time to make arrangements for them to complete a computer dissection. Students who handed me their essays wearing leather shoes, belts, backpacks and claimed they did not believe that animals should not be used. Had trouble convincing me. But I did have many students to over the years who did the computer model Instead. Unfortunately, those doing the model missed a lot of the connections to our own bodies that were made during the dissection. We had a life size human body model as well as a skeleton we used during this unit

For some students it was something to get through, for others, it was a highlight of the year. I never had anyone pass out, but I did have a few I sent out to sit in the hall way for awhile.

In college, people working in fields that require dissection need to not only see, but to feel the organism they are studying.

Do you recall what you were supposed to learn from that?  I've never heard of such a thing, so I'm wondering how it fits into the curriculum.

Commenting before reading.

I am working toward vegan. Being diabetic, I was not getting enough proteins to offset the carbs. Also, I am taking a Physiology class. Did not need to know about the sourcing of the specimens.

We have dissected a sheep's brain so far. I was so conflicted between the loss of the poor sheep's life and my enjoyment of dissection. I didn't have one qualm about Ginger, my fetal pig, in Bio class. This was pre-vegetarian.

Yet, I don't have any issue with leather purses yet. They are my guilty pleasure. That guilt is financial.

If a person is taking the class, but it isn't applicable to their field, I can see allowing an opt out for ethical reasons. Though, it would be opening a can of worms. Is the person truly ethically opposed or do they not want to do the work. Why would someone take a class that dissections are included in the curriculum? There would be other options.

I was never required to do a dissection in high school.

When I was in high school, biology and chemistry were both electives and neither were required to graduate. I recall there was one kid who was opposed to doing the dissections (frog, which stunk so bad of formaldehyde that it gave me a headache for two straight days, and a fetal pig that was thankfully much less stinky). Since it was a pretty major part of the grade, I wondered even then why that kid even took the class in the first place since it wasn't a required course and everyone knew ahead of time that dissecting stuff would be included in the coursework.