Vivisection & Dissection in the Classroom: A Guide to Conscientious Objection

The title says it all. This book has lots of information related to students legal rights, and strategies on how to assert these rights, to make sure that you will be able to take any class without compromising your ethical principles related to vivisection and dissection. This book is very well written, and provides lots of great information in a very accessible way. From my personal experience, and from talking to other students, if you are informed, and your teacher/professor can tell you know your rights, you shouldn't have a problem. In addition to lots of legal stuff, this book includes suggestions on how to approach your teacher/professor, sample letters, common objections you might face (with responses), a discussion of alternatives. The book is broken down into 7 chapter: 1. Student Rights & the First Amendment Guarantee of Freedom of Religion: An Introduction 2. Fredome of Religion and Student Rights: A Discussion 3. Other Relevant Doctrines of Federal Law 4. Some State Law Doctrines That May Support a Student's Rights to Refuse to Vivisect/Dissect 5. Asserting your Rights: Some Suggested Strategies 6. Selected Arguments and Responses 7. Nonanimal and Animal Alternatives My personal experience: This book helped me a great deal when I took a biology class that required dissection. It contains ample information, that helped me feel informed. The suggested strategies in the book really worked; the professor was initially skeptical, but after one discussion said he was impressed with my knowledge of the subject, and was fine with my using humane alternatives. At the end of the semester, he said he was really impressed by the alternatives, and was thinking of using some of them as a regular part of the lab for the class. The book has plenty of information for students who have teachers and professors who are less easy to convince than mine was.