OHSU’s use of live animals for surgical training is unnecessary and outdated, says physician’s group

For many years now, medical schools around the country have ceased using live animals to perform procedures as part of the curriculum. But in a minority of surgical residencies, residents operate on animals – often pigs – to practice techniques to be used on human patients. Oregon Health & Science University is in that minority. For years, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has been waging a campaign to get OHSU’s OB/GYN residency program to stop using pigs for doctors in training to practice reproductive surgeries on. At the same time, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is asking the hospital to stop using the animals in all of its surgical residencies in all branches of the hospital. 

OHSU declined to participate in this conversation, but Dr. Kerry Foley, a retired emergency medical doctor who volunteers for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, joins us to share her views on best practices for surgical training and why those do not include using animals. 

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