What’s wrong with medical students in TN?

A few months after the shocking incident in which a dog was thrown off the rooftop of a building in Chennai by two medical students, a similar incident that took place at the Christian Medical College(CMC) in Vellore a few days ago, came as a shock to many animal lovers and activists. A monkey that had entered the CMC campus, was tortured, killed and buried by four students of the college. Is it just a coincidence that the two back-to-back incidents of animal cruelty involve medical students? Aren't attributes of compassion and love towards living beings expected from the future doctors of our nation? Experts reason it out...

It all boils down to their upbringing

Psychologist Mini Rao says that she can't think of anything else other than their upbringing at home as a reason that would have led the students to do something this terrible. "I think it is just a coincidence that both the incidents involve medical students. These individuals have no regard for other living creatures and have treated them cruelly. Definitely, it has to do with the kind of upbringing they have had. They wouldn't have been taught to respect and show kindness to other living creatures. Also, youngsters who were brought up by strict parents and had no freedom at home, tend to misuse the liberty that they are allowed in colleges. They try to show their power and control over lesser mortals. The same could have happened in this case also."

More incidents are being reported due to better awareness

According to Dawn Williams, general manager of Blue Cross, cruelty to animals has been happening for the longest time. "It is just that more incidents are being reported these days, because of better awareness. Thanks goes to media and social media for propagating animal rights awareness. In this case also, other students who witnessed the crime informed animal activists about it. The students who were involved in this must have thought that no one would talk about it after burying the monkey's body and that they could get away scot-free. Good that such a heinous crime was brought to light by other students. To tell you the truth, I am happy that more number of people are taking the imitative to fight for animal rights, today. And this particular case will be taken very seriously by the authorities as killing of a monkey comes under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972," says Dawn. However, reiterating the fact that this was only a coincidence that both the incidents involved medicos, director of clinics at the Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Dr R Jayaprakash, says, "In general, many aren't compassionate towards animals. See, what happened in Kerala. The news of culling of stray dogs in Kerala made headlines, recently. In fact, the alumni association of a prominent college even announced gifts to the civic authorities who would kill the maximum number of stray dogs. Life is precious — be it that of a man or of an animal."

What's with medicos and animals in both the incidents

Meanwhile, Shravan Krishnan, an animal rights activist explains the need of a background check of students applying for medical courses. "Shouldn't compassion be one of the attributes these people should have? Apart from their score in entrance exams, medical colleges should also check their background on their experience of interning in NGOs and their involvement in social welfare activities during school days. They aren't going to work with bricks and stones. For them to be good doctors, they should have compassion and respect for all living creatures.

 A student's educational proficiency and his/her parents' ability to pay high capitation fees don't really matter," states Shravan Krishnan. Agreeing with Shravan is Dr Shiranee Pereira, founder of Mahatma Gandhi-Doerenkamp Centre (MGDC) for Alternatives to Use of Animals in Life Science Education. Shiranee who is also a former member of the Committee for the Purpose of Control And Supervision of Experiments on Animals says, "After a long fight I along with others managed to put an end to dissection and take it out of Biology curriculum. But there are still animal houses in medical colleges and experiments are still conducted on animals. But my question is after doing so much experiments on animals for so many years, how much have these doctors been able to translate that into human health. And specifically, I think CMC ranks the highest in the country when it comes to high-distress, high-pain studies. 

The sad part is that many of these experiments are done by students just for their Ph.D or post-graduate thesis. Why don't they choose a non-animal method to fulfill the curricular need? In general, whatever a teacher says is considered holy by most students. So, it is only natural that when animals are considered in such inanimate ways for experiments, students end up doing such horrific things outside their classrooms also. We need to rethink our education system and ensure that no blood is shed in a classroom, in the name of experimentation."