Animals for teaching purposes: medical students' attitude

Animal rights movements have increased the scope and intensity of their activities over the past decade. While it is generally assumed that doctors and other members of the health care professions favour the use of animals for science, few data are available. Student protests in various medical schools against use of animals in teaching laboratories indicated further need for objective data. A questionnaire about attitudes to the use of animals for teaching purposes was distributed to all the medical students at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, present during classes on a given day. All students present (200) returned the questionnaire (70% of the student body). Also queried were attitudes towards related subjects. A high percentage of medical students surveyed had significant reservations about animal experimentation for teaching purposes and about the preferential priority for human life over that of animals. These attitudes, if confirmed, have serious implications for educators both in the health fields and otherwise.