Johns Hopkins University announced on May 18, 2016 that it would stop the use of live animals such as pigs in its medical school training. That leaves only a single medical school out of almost 200 in all of the United States and Canada that has not made the switch to medical simulator training.
The University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) Chattanooga stubbornly refuses to change its ways. Why? When every top level medical school says using and then killing animals is simply not required, why does UTHSC continue this unnecessary, ethically questionable and antiquated practice?
Please sign this petition to tell UTHSC Chattanooga that it's time to join the rest of North America's medical schools and drag itself into the 21st century. Help your fellow animal lovers urge this medical school to stop using live animals to train medical students without further delay. This change is inevitable -- UTHSC needs to embrace it now.
Dear Dr. Stern and Dr. Fiore:
As you are aware, on May 18, 2016, the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine announced that in June it will cease using live animals such as pigs in the training of its medical students. Instead, it will rely on other methods such as medical simulators and cadavers.
This development means that the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) Chattanooga is the very last medical school out of almost 200 in the United States and Canada to continue using live animals for this purpose.
Those who have signed this petition urge you to join your professional colleagues. When every medical school but yours concedes that using animals in this way is unnecessary now, isn't it time to reassess your position? The longer your school waits, the more forceful the ethical argument for change becomes.
Don't continue to harm and euthanize innocent animals because that's the way you've always done it. Please take steps now to replace the use of live pigs and other animals with the use of computer simulators at UTHSC Chattanooga. It's the right thing to do. There's no good reason not to change.
Thank you for giving this issue the attention it deserves.
