My teacher is a vivisectionist

That's freaky... not to mention DISGUSTING.

I really hate those situations...

One of my lab teachers for my subject used to experiment on rats, over and over, to what? to find out information he's found out 100 times before?
He used to be cool after I knew (he is still a "good" person in a way I guess) but now i think I hate his guts.... Honestly anyone who can do that sort of thing and not mind and even talk about it like its cool isn't worth my time.
It's good your lecturer was understanding ( a bit) , when I told him it was disgusting, well he got all defensive and said he saved one white one that was his favorite... >.>
all I can think of is WOW, aren't you the hero? *sarc*


Anyway It's really hard to get away from that sort of stuff. We have to do stupid animal dissections in class all the time, I get in trouble for not participating though (which is absolutely pathetic) I mean, yeah I believe the thing has 4 heart valves (I hope I got that right otherwise I'm stupid ) , I don't need to prove it myself.

I just know I'd NEVER do research, unless it involves humans

Yeah these situations are really hard and also the fact that nearly all of your friends aren't even taking two seconds to question whether they have an issue with doing animal pracs- they just DO IT without thinking.
And the fact that my biggest hate in the world are vivsectionists yet this guy is really likeable in other aspects of his life and I guess I need him to be because he'll be grading alot of my work!

How very conflicting...

I know what you mean :/ It's one of those situation where you're pressured by everyone.
But at least we know what is right.

Aimee, I know exactly how you feel. One of the neuroscience lecturers I had in uni helped develop gene knockout research in mice: ie. removing specific genes so that mice develop abnormally to see what each gene contributes to the genome. The malformities this causes can be horrific!

Stick with it! Maybe one day you can start the organisation for neuroscientists against vivisection.

sorry you had that experience.  google 'speak campaigns parkinsons the truth'. this is a good start, there is plenty more

in regard to genes, it is when a gene is turned on and off in the developement of an animal which determines how the animal is formed. therefore 2 living things can have the vast majority of dna in common (eg 95% for humans and fruit flys) yet obviously be completely different. the same gene can have entirely different functions in 2 different species. to put dna correlation in its place humans and bananas have 60% of our dna in common. needless to say 60% of human diseases would not be cured by banana experiments

To quote well known French neurologist Jean Martin Charcot, "The only really decisive data touching the cerebral pathology of man are, in my opinion, those developed according to the anatomico-clinical method (i.e. humans)...To it, I may justly say we owe whatever definitive knowledge we have of brain pathology. As for the localization of certain cerebral functions, this method is not only the best, but the only one that can be employed. What light for instance could experimentation [on animals] have thrown on the question as to the seat of the function of speech?...The study of the brain, if it is to bear fruit, must be made on man, i.e., at the bedside and at the post-mortem theatre; the discovery of the exact seat of aphasia was made in that way and could nothave been made in any other... The utmost that can be learned from experiments on the brains of animals is the topography of the animals brain, and it must still remain for the science of human anatomy and clinical investigation to enlighten us in regard...of our own species; and in fact, it is from the department of clinical and post-mortem study that so far all our best data for brain localizations have been secured."
Dr. Gibbs in the Scientific American in 1993 writes, "To the 2.6 million people around the world afflicted with multiple sclerosis, medicine has offerred more frustration than comfort. Time after time, researchers have discovered new ways to cure laboratory rats of experimental induced encephalomyelitis, the murine model of MS, only to face obstacles in bringing the treatment to humans."

taking credit for deep brain stimulation is the latest fraud pulled by vivisectors, dr andre menache responds to it at speak campaigns

a good ref. for other areas of brain research is...

http://speakcampaigns.org/sitepages.php?a=24#other

you may have already seen it

Thanks for your replies everyone, I thought this thread died!

We had a speaker talk to our class the other day about doing work placement at the hospital she represents and she said they do animal research there "but we don't like to advertise that"...

I just wish there was something I could do, you know?