Dear Editor,

It is clear the author of Thursday's (editorial) conducted no research, but simply expressed his/her uneducated views. Animal testing is ineffective, and here is why:

1. Much of tests done on animals are not applicable to human beings, for the simple reason that medicine acts much different on another species (in the same way medicine affects humans differently).

Consequently, following many animal tests, the medicine must still be tested on humans.

2. You're wrong about doctors. American Medical Student Association (AMSA) said in 2007 "AMSA strongly encourages the replacement of animal laboratories with non-animal alternatives in undergraduate medical education." And these were kids that were actually pre-med, not just taking a useless elective.

3. In March 2008, the National Science Teachers Association amended its official position on the use of animals to acknowledge the educational viability of non-animal learning methods to the use of animal dissection and to encourage their use. The instructor of BIOL 171 is using outdated material, and has no right to take lives in such heinous ways.

4. If Marquette is committed to upholding and promoting Catholic values, then compassion and mercy should extend to all thinking, feeling, living beings, not just the ones who look most like us. "Being the Difference" means speaking up for those who are marginalized and improving conditions for those who can't speak for themselves.

5. Clans Virtual Physiology Series, Sheffield Biosciences, and Anesoft's Hemodynamics Simulator are all viable programs that are recommended by compassionate professionals. All programs offer intense instruction about blood, nerve, and muscle physiology, intestinal absorption, cellular reparation, reparation pharmacology and many, many more topics.

Using such programs will also save the University money because they can be used for years, whereas a dead animal can only be used once. Those who think they have the right to kill another animal for their own frivolous needs are prejudiced. Our planet is in peril, and we need our universities to be the stepping stone into a healthier, peaceful, cruelty free world.

Danika Rahn is a Junior in the College of Nursing.