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The Right to Say No: A Students Decision
Against Dissection
By Jennifer Thornburg
It’s hard to believe that students in North Carolina
can be flunked because of their religious beliefs, but it’s true.
Students who have religious and ethical beliefs that go against
dissection have no rights, under North Carolina State law, to object to
dissection. But times are changing. Many teachers are open-minded enough
to allow students an alternative assignment to dissection when it is
asked for; but not all students are confident enough to take the chance
and ask for an alternative assignment, and those who are, are sometimes
not allowed the alternative.
When a student is forced to dissect against his/her
will, disciplinary problems, law suits, and/or a decreased ability to
learn is often the result. Many students, who would otherwise take a
great interest in a career in the science field, will turn to a
different career pathway, when they are afraid of being forced to
dissect.
Alternatives to dissection not only teach the students
equally or better then actual animal dissection, but they can also save
the school money over time, or when borrowed from the Humane Society of
the United State’s free dissection alternatives loan program. Dissection
alternatives range from 3-D models to computer programs and more
creative students can make up their own assignment, such as making a 3-D
model by hand or creating a diagram. Alternatives are often labeled
clearly, so that the student knows what they are looking at, and
students can go back and forth to redo different parts of the
dissection: when cutting up a real animal, no body parts are labeled,
and you only have one chance to make a cut.
There are many reasons to not dissect, ranging from
environmental to health and (most commonly) to animal rights. Contrary
to what many students assume, the frogs that are cut up for dissection
are caught from the wild, not lab-raised: many species of frogs are
endangered, and even more pressing is the amount of bugs, and by effect,
chemicals, that increase in an area when the natural and healthy frog
population decreases. Formaldehyde, an embalming fluid, is poisonous at
the point where you can smell it: walk into any dissection classroom and
inhale the poisonous fluid in the air. Finally, the animals that are
used in dissection are sometimes companion animals that are taken from
their homes, but even more importantly is the way that they are treated
afterwards: some animals are gassed, others pumped with formaldehyde
while still alive, and for an unlucky few, drowned. It is not uncommon
for animals to live through the gassing, and to be thrown into bags and
crates, ready for shipment, while still alive.
Thankfully, there is something that you can do to make
sure that no student in your town is ever legally forced to dissect
again! A dissection choice policy is a policy that allows students to
choose an alternative to dissection, without penalty to his/her grade.
Asheville High School passed a dissection choice policy at the end of
the last school year, and the work involved in getting the policy passed
was worthwhile, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. A good starting
place is writing a policy and bringing it to the school science teachers
for overview. Then, get a list of committee meetings that need to pass
the policy for it to come into effect. Put together short, five minute
presentations for the meetings, and go prepared to answer questions. For
an example of a dissection choice policy, go to
www.peta2.org.
Jennifer
Thornburg is a student at Asheville High School, where she worked to get
a dissection choice policy passed at the end of the last school year.
Jennifer completed a two month internship with People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals in Norfolk, VA, and is currently staying in
Asheville until she graduates this year. For more information on
alternative dissection policies, contact Jennifer at ender_petra@yahoo.com.
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