Is it true that if i want to do in anything in the medical field, i would have to dissect a human an a cat?

Question

Is it true that if i want to do in anything in the medical field, i would have to dissect a human an a cat?

Answer 1

In my university since it isn't a public university, the mexican government doesn't gives us a lot of human bodies to work on. Usually we'd be 5 people working on a body that's been dead for over 6 months and the skin is turning black. Since they were in formol, the smell was bearable (smelled like rotten strawberries to me), but your eyes burn like crazy with the preservatives in the air. >_<

It's quite a turn around when you see real, living people where tissues are all shiny and red and pretty.

Yes, you will be dissecting animals and killing them too.

My university uses stray dogs so that we can practise surgery in the second year. It really does amaze me on how irresponsible mexicans really are with her pets. 90% of the animals we operated on were pure breeds and really gorgeous animals. I hated it when they were sacrificed because most of them were just really beautiful animals. I especially loved the Chow-Chows. >_< We also operated on a few golden retrievers and a husky. We rarely operated on real street dogs that were mutts.

We used mice, rats and a few times adorable albino bunnies in the Physiology and Pharmachology labs. We were also taught how to sacrifice mice and rats. I didn't mind sacrificing them because it was rather painless, but I still have wuirms with the horrid things we did to those bunnies. Some of them died slow and very painful deaths. I can still remember the squeaks some of them made when they were in the worst pain. However, while I think some of the most painful experiments could have been avoided (or at least just use 1 animal for the entire classroom), a lot of this knowledge is a necesary evil.

If you have ethical things against it, maybe your teachers can let you do something else, but chances are they will flunk you if you don't work (luckily since you usually work in teams, you could always volunteer to do the non animal killing parts of the practises like preparing medications or writing down the mathematical calculations on paper).

Computer models do reduce a lot of the experiemnts we had to do, but we still had to do a lot of practises on animals. Luckily I'm at a semester where we don't do such things anymore.

Answer 2

Well, as for the cat, I think that would only be required if you desired to become a veterinarian...

Answer 3

I don't know about the cat, but if you want to be an MD, you will dissect a human.

Answer 4

Undergraduate classes in Anatomy often involve the dissection of cats. Gross Anatomy (medical school) involves Human Dissection.

When I was an undergrad, we didn't have cats. It must have been a money thing. I had the rat.  I did well in dissection though because in high school, I had a Physiology class and we dissected sheep parts (eyes, uterus, kidneys, heart), a fetal pig, and bull testicles.  So, after doing that, the rat wasnt so bad.

Answer 5

I managed to get an undergrad degree in biochemistry, which has a requirement of anatomy and physiology.

We dissected fetal pigs, which was just weird.

I got into medical school, BTW.  (I dropped and went to grad school for organic chem instead.)   Now I work in the medical field in a medical laboratory.

However, most schools will require a cat or a cadaver, depending on the size of the school.  However, many programs are set up that if you truly have a problem with the concept (there was a Muslim girl in my AP who COULD NOT touch the pig).   Speak with the professor teaching the AP course.  Exceptions can be made, but "I don't wanna" isn't usually going to cut it.  

BTW - it isn't as bad as it feels like it's going to be.  I actually started becoming more interested as I went on.  I think I would, now, not mind doing a cadaver lab.  I see them all the time at work (pathology is, like, 8 feet from my office) and it's gotten far less peronal.  But yes, it's scary and icky at first.

Hope this helps - best wishes for the future!

Answer 6

It is a bit hard to dissect a book or a picture. You will likely have to dissect a number of things if you are pursuing a medical career. To really understand the way things work and are held together.

Answer 7

Safe to say you'll have to dissect something.  We did cats when I was in nursing school.  Fetal pigs are also popular.  Med school will require a cadaver.  It really isn't so bad & it helps you understand so much more about the way a body is put together.  I don't think there is a substitute.