Why do people hate dissecting?

Answer 1

I have done quite a few dissections and I personally think that it's a very useful learning tool. However, there were quite a few people in the class who did not enjoy it at all - some of them couldn't even stand to be in the room. I think there are a number of reasons. Firstly, although we were wearing gloves the tissues we were dissecting were cold and slimy. They had been in the fridge for a number of days and I think the best way to say it is that they stank. They weren't rotten, they just didn't smell very nice. I also once dissected a rat that had been preserved in formalin and that smelled awful, I had to put on a surgeon's mask because I couldn't stand the smell of it. A few people were being highly immature, squeezing blood clots out of the hearts and painting on the newspapers with them. This was rather disgusting and contributed to it. There's the factor that what we're cutting up was once a living animal. That made one girl clear out crying - she was a vegetarian and believed that killing animals for our purposes (we were dissecting pig hearts from an abattoir) was wrong. The 'blood and guts' factor grossed some people out as well. By the time we were finished we had rat intestines dangling over the edge of the table and our hands, instruments and smocks were all covered in blood. I've never been squeamish and it didn't bother me (I'm used to collecting live insects to feed my pets and cutting up raw meat) but some people were quite horrified by it. The main reason I don't always enjoy dissecting in a classroom situation is because of the guarantee that people will be immature - like the blood clot incident and pretending to strangle each other with rat intestines. It's not as much fun when people are being stupid, but I believe that used correctly it can be a very useful way of teaching anatomy.