I'm the dissection guy. I loved every minute of Anatomy. The body is as fascinating as it is disgusting. Well... much more fascinating than disgusting. We recently had a physiology lab in which we were to measure and record stimuli and the resulting action potentials using the gastrocnemius of a frog. Apparently, the humane way to accomplish this is to drug the frog so as to knock it out, then give it the ol' avada kedavra (first Harry Potter reference, not the last) with a cleaver.
As ok as I am with the harsher side of reality these classes afford me, I have to admit, I did not love being handed a still-twitching frog leg to dissect. But, like the trooper that I am, I did what I needed to do. It was a pretty cool lab after all and it is good practice for the cardiac lab in which we hook electrodes to a still-beating frog heart. I enjoy digging into things as much as the next guy, but there is definitely something unsettling when the "thing" is still moving. I'm the guy that has a hard time killing the occasional spider, so the reality that these poor little guys are dying in the name of science bugs me a bit.
I think the best way to look at it is that by learning all this, I will someday be instrumental in saving lives. I don't think that my viewpoint on the preservation of any creature's life is a bad thing, I think it's paramount to what I'm going to do. I guess I just need to focus on the bigger picture.
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