This post is rated 16+ with MT and O for mature themes
and for images that may disturb or disgust some readers.
READER DISCRETION ADVISED
Last week, as part in our journey to become doctors, we began a three-day dissection of a fetal pig. Fetal pigs are product produced by the slaughterhouses when they kill pregnant sows (female pigs), and their either sold to schools (for medical study) or discarded. Fetal pigs are used in dissections because of their similarities to humans, being a mammal, and for the fact that they are so well developed at the time of death.
Now, you might say that this cruel, but in order to learn more about ourselves, something has to give. As someone put, "Would you want a doctor that hasn't practiced first?" I say "no." It's in this way, although disturbing to some, that we learn not only about our bodies, but how it's able to function as an organic being.
Due to the terms of Google's Picasa service, I can only upload a the least explicit photographs.
Once again, what follows are some photographs that might disturb or disgust some readers.
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| Making incisions in the ventral surface |
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The fetal pig lying on its back, incisions marking the locations
of the digestive organs. |
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| Spreading the ribs apart |
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Cutting into the abdomen, revealing the digestive organs,
and diaphragm |
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| The umbilical cord |
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From left-to-right: skin, the umbilical cord, the rectum, and digestive organs
(stomach, small/large intestines) |
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| Cutting into the heart... |
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| Making incisions in the thorax |
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Holding the jaw open, inspecting the tongue,
teeth, and locating the nasopharnyx and esophagus in the back of the mouth. |
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| Spreading the jaw open. |
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| Prepping the specimen for incisions. |
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| An incision in the throat... |
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| Cutting into the thorax, following demarcation lines. |
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| Examining the specimen. |
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| The thorax cut, revealing the thyroid. |
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Another angle of the same shot above, with the thyroid
revealed. |
