COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) – The University of South Carolina’s School on Medicine will stop using live pigs in its emergency training after an animal-rights group complained about the practice.
The State of Columbia reports that the school’s dean sent an email with its decision Tuesday to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. The group, which has lobbied for similar changes at other schools, seeks alternatives to using animals in medical education.
In August, the group wrote to the U.S. Department of Agriculture saying the program instructs trainees to cut into live pigs to insert needles and tubes, and to spread the ribs to access the heart. After the training session, the animals are killed.
USC and Palmetto Health issued a joint statement saying “continued advances in simulation technology make it possible for us to make this change at this time.”
