There are two main reasons why I could never be a doctor.

First of all I’m not very bright and my science scores particularly were unlikely to ever convince a medical school to grant me entrance.

But equally important to me is the fact that I wouldn’t want to have to do stuff on animals for research.

As much as I abhor it emotionally, pragmatically I have to accept the use of animals in necessary medical research until we’re able to come up with a better alternative. However personally, I just couldn’t do it. And I’ve often wondered how others can, so last week I asked a class of surgeons that I teach what their thoughts on the matter were. Their answer surprised me...

Actually, before I go into that, you ought to know a little about the Japanese approach to religion. In Japan there are two main forms of religion, Buddhism and Shinto. You all probably know a bit about Buddhism but possibly not about Shinto. As far as my knowledge extends on the subject, Shinto is an animist religion in the sense that it doesn’t have a particular god but recognises the presence of a divine force in all living things. Something like that but to be honest, if you ask most Japanese people to explain the
difference between the two they’ll hum and haw and tell you that Buddhism is used for funerals and memorial ceremonies and the like and Shinto is used for weddings and o-miyamairi, the Japanese equivalent of a christening.

As a rule of thumb, in Japan temples are Buddhist and shrines are Shinto. But apart from visiting them for their aesthetic values, few people here go to temples or shrines with a religious purpose, in the way that believers in other religions might celebrate their faith elsewhere. The thing is, to most Japanese people, religion isn’t a part of everyday life and this group of surgeons aren’t devout Buddhists or anything; I just wanted to clear that up first.

Well, when I asked them about it, they told me that as doctors they have to use animals, particularly rats and mice, for research from time to time. They don’t like having to do it but it’s a necessary part of their work. However, while not particularly religious, they do feel a sense of spiritual guilt and to atone for this, twice a year they go to a special animal shrine and pray for the souls of the animals who have died during the course of their research...

Now I don’t know about you, but knowing that they do that makes me feel a bit better about the whole thing....


..and here's something else to consider...