Editing Dissection (section)

===United States===
[[File:Teen-Girl-Student-Dissecting-Animal-Eye.jpg |thumb|left |A teenage school pupil dissecting an eye]]

In the United States, dissection of frogs became common in college biology classes from the 1920s, and were gradually introduced at earlier stages of education. By 1988, some 75 to 80 percent of American high school biology students were participating in a [[frog]] dissection, with a trend towards introduction in elementary schools. The frogs are most commonly from the genus ''[[Rana (genus)|Rana]]''. Other popular animals for high-school dissection at the time of that survey were, among vertebrates, [[fetal pig]]s, [[perch]], and cats; and among invertebrates, [[earthworm]]s, [[grasshopper]]s, [[crayfish]], and [[starfish]].<ref>{{Cite book |author1=Orlans, F. Barbara |author2=Beauchamp, Tom L.|author3-link=Rebecca Dresser |author3=Dresser, Rebecca |author4=Morton, David B. |author5=Gluck, John P. |title=The Human Use of Animals |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-19-511908-4 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/humanuseofanimal0000unse/page/213 213] |url=https://archive.org/details/humanuseofanimal0000unse/page/213 }}</ref> About six million animals are dissected each year in United States high schools (2016), not counting medical training and research. Most of these are purchased already dead from slaughterhouses and farms.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://aavs.org/animals-science/how-animals-are-used/dissection/ |title=Dissection |date=2016 |website=American Anti-Vivisection Society |access-date=16 February 2016}}</ref>

Dissection in U.S. high schools became prominent in 1987, when a California student, Jenifer Graham, sued to require her school to let her complete an alternative project. The court ruled that mandatory dissections were permissible, but that Graham could ask to dissect a frog that had died of natural causes rather than one that was killed for the purposes of dissection; the practical impossibility of procuring a frog that had died of natural causes in effect let Graham opt out of the required dissection. The suit gave publicity to anti-dissection advocates. Graham appeared in a 1987 [[Apple Computer]] commercial for the virtual-dissection software Operation Frog.<ref>Howard Rosenberg: [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-11-10-ca-20057-story.html Apple Computer's 'Frog' Ad Is Taken Off the Air.] Los Angeles Times, November 10, 1987.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |author1=F. Barbara Orlans |author2=Tom L. Beauchamp |author3=Rebecca Dresser |author4=David B. Morton |author5=John P. Gluck | title=The Human Use of Animals | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=1998 | isbn=978-0-19-511908-4 | pages=210 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yBWL1t2b_w0C&pg=PA210}}</ref> The state of California passed a Student's Rights Bill in 1988 requiring that objecting students be allowed to complete alternative projects.<ref>Orlans ''et al.'', pp. 209–211</ref> Opting out of dissection increased through the 1990s.<ref>{{Cite news | title=Frogs' Best Friends: Students Who Won't Dissect Them | work=The New York Times | date=May 29, 1997 | url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D00E5DF123AF93AA15756C0A961958260 | first=Dirk | last=Johnson | access-date=1 May 2010}}</ref>

In the United States, 17 states{{efn|California, Connecticut, D.C., Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Virginia all have statewide laws or department of education policies that allow students to opt out.}} along with Washington, D.C. have enacted dissection-choice laws or policies that allow students [[K–12|in primary and secondary education]] to opt out of dissection. Other states including Arizona, Hawaii, Minnesota, Texas, and Utah have more general policies on opting out on moral, religious, or ethical grounds.<ref>{{cite web |title=Your Right Not to Dissect |publisher=PETA2 |url=http://PETA2.com }}</ref> To overcome these concerns, [[J. W. Mitchell High School]] in [[New Port Richey, Florida]], in 2019 became the first US high school to use synthetic frogs for dissection in its science classes, instead of preserved real frogs.<ref>{{cite news|author=Aaro, David|title=Florida high school first in world to use synthetic frogs for dissection|work=Fox News|date=November 30, 2019|url=https://www.foxnews.com/science/florida-high-school-first-synthetic-frogs-dissection|access-date=November 30, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|author=Elassar, Alaa|title=A Florida high school is the first in the world to provide synthetic frogs for students to dissect|publisher=CNN|date=November 30, 2019|url=https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/30/us/florida-high-school-synthetic-frogs-trnd/index.html|access-date=November 30, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|author=Lewis, Sophie|title=Florida high school introduces synthetic frogs for science class dissection|work=[[CBS News]]|date=November 26, 2019|url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/florida-high-school-introduces-synthetic-frogs-for-dissection-in-science-class/|access-date=November 30, 2019}}</ref>

As for the dissection of cadavers in undergraduate and medical school, traditional dissection is supported by professors and students, with some opposition, limiting the availability of dissection. Upper-level students who have experienced this method along with their professors agree that "Studying human anatomy with colorful charts is one thing. Using a scalpel and an actual, recently-living person is an entirely different matter."<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://emu.edu/now/news/2012/11/emus-cadaver-dissection-gives-pre-med-students-big-advantage/ |title=EMU News |last=Jenner |first=Andrew |date=2012 |work=EMU's Cadaver Dissection Gives Pre-Med Students Big Advantage |access-date=25 April 2016 }}</ref>