Spinning for the purpose of "saving lives" is ridiculous!! Consider:
a) A large percentage of spin accidents are caused by practicing spins
b) In normal flight operations, inadvertantly entering a spin is highly unlikely
c) Most inadvertant spins occur when an aircraft is low turning base to final on a forced approach, due to ground shyness (the tendency for a nervous pilot to underbank and attempt to turn using excess bottom rudder). This means they are probably trying to conserve altitude to get past an obstacle. An entry into a spin under these conditions will almost certainly result in an accident even if proper recovery actions are taken.
Therefore, practicing spins does not prevent stall/spin accidents.
Having said that, I'd like to say that I believe in teaching spins as a confidence builder as well as a coordination exercise. In fact, I believe a few hours of aerobatics is good for every private pilot, as they should know the capabilities of their machine. If a student learns to "be scared" of a spin, but they have never seen one, they will not be as confident with stick and rudder.