Should the military use animals in training medics?

New videos have surfaced depicting the use of monkeys and goats in military medical training. Acquired by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, now the videos are causing controversy about whether the military is violating its own regulations regarding animal welfare.

Similar to the question about whether using live animals for vet school training is ethical, the debate is strong over whether using live animals in medical training in the military is acceptable. Some say it's essential and invaluable; others argue that it's a poor substitute for actual human experience and that it's inhumane treatment of the animals. In the CNN article I link to above, one doctor argues that no animal has ever died from their experiments so it's okay to conduct them. But I ask this: how much do they suffer? How often are they allowed to recover only to be used again in some other test? What kind of life is that?

While I have the utmost respect for our service men and women and want to ensure their health and safety out in the field, I don't believe that testing nerve agents on monkeys or learning how to put a chest tube in a goat is particularly pertinent practice for military medics. Animal anatomy - even monkey anatomy - is pretty different from human anatomy. How a monkey reacts to the nerve agent might be totally different from how a human would react; I can't imagine the chest of a goat is so similar to a human that it would be devastating to a person's education to miss that day in medical school.

I believe that military medics should do rounds with doctors in hospitals, in trauma centers, where they will have the opportunity to experience real human medical problems and crises and will learn how to deal with them. I imagine this next suggestion might be considered too resource-consuming or impractical, but perhaps medics-in-training might be assigned to an active-duty medic and follow him or her on a tour in order to get some hands-on experience.

Not only am I an advocate for animal welfare and the humane treatment of animals, I also want our military medical staff to receive the best training possible. I do not think that the best training available requires animal involvement. Find another way, a better way, not only for the animals, but because using them just isn't a good substitute for the real thing.