I have a pretty amazing body. You do too. Actually, most people do.  I know this for a fact because I’m taking human anatomy and physiology this year. Every Gold Day morning, I learn a little bit more about the miraculous nature of the human body and the magic that is life. However, it’s ironic that in order for me to learn about life, deaths have to occur.

In this past school year, we dissected a sheep brain and a cow eye. While I personally was grossed out by the dissections, it wasn’t until the dissection of the fetal pig that I couldn’t get over how wrong it was.

The fetuses that are used in the dissections are taken from pregnant sows at the slaughterhouse. Female pigs are slaughtered and their fetuses are taken out and have their throats slit. According to the Humane Society, almost all of the 97 million pigs slaughtered annually for human consumption in the United States are raised in crowded, confined settings where the animals are deprived of decent living conditions. The fetal pigs that end up in our dissection trays are byproducts of the cruel treatment of animals raised for human consumption.  By using these pigs, we are inadvertently also accepting and encouraging this horrible treatment.

What especially surprised me about this whole situation was the large amount of students joking about the dissection and posting pictures with the dead animals on social media. Classroom dissections assist in desensitizing students to the value of life, which can negatively affect them later in life. Sarah Gillim and Erin Odya, two of the human anatomy and physiology teachers, said that there isn’t an option for students to sit out of a dissection because they signed up knowing that dissections were part of the syllabus.  I agree that students knew what they were going to do beforehand, but I also believe that the class should be open to students who may be uncomfortable with this process. There are other ways for students to learn about how the body works that do not involve taking apart the insides of an animal. For example, advanced technology in computers now offers virtual dissections.

A student should not have to participate in a dissection if he or she is ethically uncomfortable with it, and an equal alternative should certainly be offered. Many states, including Illinois and Florida, already have laws that allow students to choose humane alternatives without being penalized. Indiana should also follow this example. The human body is undoubtedly fascinating, but more humane ways to study it would greatly benefit everyone.

The views in this column do not necessarily reflect the views of the HiLite staff. Reach Nivedha Meyyappan at [email protected].