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• Mar 27, 2008 5:40 pm US/Eastern
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  Group Wants Hopkins To Stop Using Live Animals

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Group Wants Hopkins To Stop Using Live Animals

Reporting
Kellye Lynn

There are cries of outrage over the use of live animals at one of the top ranked medical institutions in the country.

Healthwatch reporter Kellye Lynn says an animal advocacy group wants the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine to consider other alternatives.

Just steps from Johns Hopkins Hospital, doctors demonstrate to stop the suffering.  They want Hopkins to stop the practice of training medical students with live animals, specifically pigs.

"We're asking Johns Hopkins to join its medical school colleagues around the country and end this practice," said Dr. John Pippin. "Live pigs are used and then killed to introduce students to surgery techniques."

Barbara Wasserman is a retired Hopkins educated doctor, who represents the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.  PCRM is an animal advocacy group pushing Hopkins to join the hundreds of medical schools around the country that no longer train medical students with live animals.

"When animals are in a situation where they're caged, tied down, this is a situation that's going to generate fear, anxiety," said Wasserman.

According to PCRM, Hopkins is one of only 10 medical schools around the country using live animals in the classroom.

Johns Hopkins officials would only provide a statement to Eyewitness News that in part reads: "Animal research is vital to progress against human disease."

Meanwhile, an editorial in the weekly student publication called the Johns Hopkins Newsletter urges the school to "stop killing animals needlessly."

"There is no reason to use live animals to teach medical students principals that can be taught using alternative non-animal techniques," said Wasserman.

The University of Maryland School of Medicine is one of the many institutions in the United States that does not rely on live animals to train students.

At the Medical Simulation for Skills Acquisition Center, students learn surgical techniques with simulators that mimic the human body.

"I don't see any reason why you should have to subject any animal to surgery if you don't have to," said medical student Kevin Caldwell.

As the controversy rages on, Hopkins' practice of using animals for teaching shows no signs of stopping.  It's a long held tradition that could be slow to die, even when life is at stake.

PCRM points out that Johns Hopkins is the only top 20 ranked U.S. medical school to use live animals in its medical school curriculum.

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