By Luba Patlakh
Students in biology courses now have a choice of whether to participate in dissection due to the work of the Student Organization of Animal Rights (SOAR) and Eric Dubinsky.
The biology department will post its policies regarding BIO 11 and BIO 12 on the department’s Web site and in the undergraduate course bulletin beginning fall 2007, although the option began this semester.
As specified in the Dissection Policy Statement Agreement: “While students are encouraged to do so well in advance of the course, they will have until the end of the first week of the semester to submit to the chair of the department an essay (with supporting documentation from the literature) that clearly outlines what their objection to dissection is and the justification (with supporting documentation from the literature) for that objection. In order to get a better understanding of this, it would be in the student’s best interest to discuss this ‘Objection Statement’ with the chair of biology before writing/submitting it.”
The policy was approved last fall, but Dubinsky has been working on this issue for the past two years. “As president of the animal rights club and a vegan, I did not think it was okay to kill animals in any scenario,” Dubinsky said. “Science and research show it’s not necessary and there was navigation to work towards a change here.”
Dubinsky’s first idea was to speak directly with the chair of the biology department, only to discover that the department was not interested.
“I don’t think that the biology department was in favor of what I wanted to do, but became aware that it was time to make a change and that it was time to move [forward] with other schools,” Dubinsky said. “Science departments must go with times and times are changing. Allowing students the choice of dissection is a more ethical and a more efficient process.”
Dubinsky then decided to speak to the office of the provost. He was told to gather information that could provide proof of choice dissection policies from Ivy League schools. He was able to provide policies from Stanford University and the University of Pennsylvania.
“I provided the office of provost with the policy information, got student opinions and provided literature and scientific data to show that this was something that needed to be done,” Dubinsky said.
Last year, he also held a referendum for students with religious and ethical objections to dissection. “Students voted overwhelmingly in favor of the choice,” he said.
Sarvi Javid, a freshman biology major, said that a student’s religious views should be put first.
“Personally, I think, if it is against students’ religious views, [then] they should have a choice in whether they want to dissect animals in lab or not,” Javid said. “As long as people don’t take advantage of this choice, and abuse it, I think that the school has made a right choice in respecting people’s religious views.”
Without a thorough reason for their objections, students will be required to participate in the dissections.
“There are limitations to what a student writes as to why they object; their reasoning can’t be because it’s gross or they don’t want to,” Dubinsky said. “Students must actually find sources to prove that it’s a viable alternative.”
Boris Kaplunovsky, a senior biology major, said that dissection is an element of learning, researching and fully understanding the subject.
“If you can’t handle dissection, think about a new major,” Kaplunovsky said. “I think dissection is an important part of a biology course, but I don’t mind that students have a choice, and I think bio majors that don’t participate are at a loss.”
For students who are worried that this exemption from dissection can in some way harm their grades, the Dissection Policy Statement Agreement reads: “There will be no penalty (loss of grade) if a student does not dissect, but participates in the lab in other ways.”
The biology department modified its policies to allow students the choice of whether or not to dissect animals. (rock-hill.k12.sc.us)