Veterinary education as leader: which alternatives?

This article suggests that veterinary medicine has a leadership role to play in our society on ethical matters involving non-human animals. The article contrasts two trends within veterinary medicine; the first trend is a continuation of the avowedly utilitarian attitude toward non-humans that has its roots in Western veterinary medicine's eighteenth-century origins, and the second is the implicit view in veterinary practice that animals matter in and of themselves. Using the idea of alternatives in research and teaching, the article suggests that, in the years to come, veterinary medicine's answers to the relationships of these two trends will shape not only the soul of veterinary medicine, veterinary education, and the veterinary profession but, just as importantly, the larger society and culture themselves. This text is based on the keynote address delivered at the AAVMC Education Symposium in Washington, DC, on March 9, 2006, under the title "Ethical Issues Impacting Animal Use in Veterinary Medical Teaching."