[silver_pilate]

Rev,

I know what you mean. We did the cat disection in Anatomy I and II in undergrad. We had this GIANT alley tomcat we named Mr. Bigglesworth.

I don't have a problem working on things that are already dead. I've disected the cat along with countless other small creatures in comparative anatomy courses and such, but the thing that takes the cake was my Gross Anatomy class which I took about one year ago as my first graduate course. That class absolutely ROCKED! It was intense, but it was awesome. I learend more in that class than I did in four years of undergrad. There wasn't ever really a problem with working on a dead person. They donated their body to science, and we always treated the cadavers with respect. It was, afterall, someone's mother, father, sister, brother, daughter, or son.

I, too, have done live animal experiments. I took an advanced human physiology class the last semester of undergrad. We used turtles, frogs, and mice to do experiments in physiological systems and homeostasis mechanisms. Ever pip a frog? That has to be one of the worst. First knock the thing unconcious (this was one of the worst parts...take the frog in your hand and then bash the back of its head against the edge of a table....*shudder*). Then take a pair of scissors, cut off the top half of its head, and then use a needle to destroy the remainer of its brainstem....yeck. This leaves them paralyzed, braindead, and basically othewise dead except that their heart and lungs are still going.

With the rats, we anesthitized them and implanted transmitors for experiments. After we were done, we put them down with ether followed by pneumothorax. The turtle was pretty bad as well...but we won't go there.

It bothered me as well. I don't like the destruction of life, but you pick the lesser evil, I guess. Sacrifice animals for the sake of human life. Sometimes I wonder if the human portion isn't the greater evil.... But there's bad apples in every barrel, right?

Amazing what we do in the pursuit of knowledge, eh?

--nathan