Grey’s Anatomy and Vivisection November 3, 2008
This past Thursday Grey’s Anatomy explored the topic of vivisection and animals used for research/education. A new doctor arrives (Dr. Owen Hunt) and he asks the residents if they have any issue with practicing on live tissue. They say no, and then he reveals five live pigs laying on hospital beds. They are under general anesthesia. Dr. Hunt proceeds to stab each one in the abdomen or chest. And then tells the residents to save their lives.
Yeah. This was the opening. Terrible. But then, the voice of reason comes out from one of the residents. Izzie says in response, “You are torturing animals in an age where we have the technology that no longer requires us to. You want to do that, go ahead, but don’t tell me I’m less of a doctor for walking away.”
In fact even Christina, a resident who has little compassion for anyone, ends up caring for the pigs. She and her interns patch them all up. Dr. Hunt then tell them, after all their hard work, to put them down. It’s the only humane thing to do, he says. Christina, who just spent the whole day saving the lives of these pigs (who she and the interns named) can’t do it. But finally understand that she has to. Otherwise these pigs would have months of pain and rehab ahead of them. (I don’t really agree with that although I understand it, but that’s the direction the show went.)
So, like in most medical research, the animals were put down. I thought the episode came down on the side of animals and that Izzie’s outrage was done intelligently. All of the doctors other than Dr. Hunt ended up seeing the animals as sentient creatures. Also, in the middle of the episode, text comes on the screen that says, No animals were used in filming.
Want to help save some real life pigs? PCRM does it all the time by convincing medical research and education facilities to stop using live animals as subjects. Their latest campaign is to get University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey to stop using live pigs. Read more up on it here and write or call the university to ask them to stop.
Trust me. It works. I helped get Valhalla Medical College to stop using live dogs. Flood them with emails. Seriously. Tell your friends. It’s important.