Physicians Committee
October 2017
In using animals instead of human-based methods, the University of Tennessee College of Medicine Chattanooga is failing to provide a modern medical education.
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a national nonprofit
of 12,000 physicians, is calling on the University of Tennessee College of
Medicine Chattanooga (UTCOM Chattanooga) to modernize its medical training
methods and do away with live animal use. According to a complaint that the
Physicians Committee will file with the U.S. Department of Agriculture
(USDA) on Sept. 21, the animal use violates federal law.
“Alternative training methods are widely used and accepted as superior to
animal use, as they are designed to reflect the anatomy and physiology of
humans,” says John Pippin, M.D., F.A.C.C., director of academic affairs for
the Physicians Committee. “In using animals instead of human-based methods,
the University of Tennessee College of Medicine Chattanooga is failing to
provide a modern medical education.”
The complaint focuses on three areas of medical training in which the use of
animals is far outside the norm:
The complaint cites violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act and inadequate oversight of the training protocol by the university’s animal care and use committee. The Physicians Committee is requesting that all three training programs end animal use.
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