FROM APPREHENSION TO FASCINATION WITH DOG LAB - THE USE OF ABSOLUTIONS BY MEDICAL-STUDENTS

Forty-one first-year medical school students were interviewed regardin g their expectations of and experience in a physiology laboratory wher e live, anesthetized dogs were injected with drugs and surgically mani pulated before being killed. Before going into lab, there was widespre ad uneasiness among most students regarding the moral implications of their anticipated use of dogs as experimental tools. However, students described the lab in very positive terms after going through it. The findings suggest that this change in attitude stems from the ability o f students to neutralize the moral dirty work of ''dog lab.'' The auth ors argue that this is possible because the students learn absolutions that permit denial of responsibility and wrongdoing.