Virtual Dissection: Forward for Education or Hindrance to Hands-on Experience?

I remember frog dissection day in high school. My lab partner and I sat on our stools, looking at the shrink-wrapped, pre-cut, horrendously smelly piece of rubber (or so it seemed) somewhat resembling a frog that our teacher plunked down on our lab table.

According to Sandra Bussein, some student request the "hands-on experience." These students have obviously never dissected a frog before. After being soaked in formaldehyde for longer than any of us knew and examined time and time again, it was difficult to believe that the specimen in front of us had ever been alive in the first place. The flesh was brittle and had long since faded to grey. I can't see how having a vividly realistic virtual dissection program could be in any way an inferior experience (especially judging by how much attention we were all paying on dissection day anyway). The fact that your fingers don't reek (even when wearing gloves) for at least a day afterward may top the list of benefits, as far as I'm concerned.

Besides, no matter what your religious beliefs, the idea of having animals raised purely for slaughter, maybe even before they experience life at all (a.k.a., pig fetuses), is downright unethical, especially if there's another way.

Here's to hoping that we as humans can use our technological intelligence to preserve life by using programs like these, rather than twist and corrupt the natural cycle of it by raising and killing living beings just so high school students can have an "experience".