AIIMS urged not to use animals for training

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) on Tuesday said it would hold a workshop on alternatives to the use of animals in MBBS programmes at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

The first of its kind workshop will train doctors and students in using state-of-the-art human patient simulators (HPS), supervised clinical practice and interactive computer-aided learning (CAL) simulations.

“By relegating to the history books the use of animals in training, India's medical colleges will ensure that students are given the most modern educational tools available,” PETA India science policy adviser Chaitanya Koduri said in a statement.

The workshop was developed after the Medical Council of India in 2009 adopted a policy that cleared the way for medical schools to end all use of animals in MBBS training. PETA will hold similar workshops in other medical colleges across the country.

According to PETA, non-animal medical training curricula have already been adopted in 95 per cent of medical programmes in the US and 100 per cent across Canada and Britain.

“Institutions in these countries provide students with the latest training methods, including human-patient simulators, supervised clinical practice and interactive computer-aided teaching models. Non-animal training methods have repeatedly proved to be superior to those that use animals,” he said.