CADAVERS! WHERE DO THEY COME FROM?

The free online dictionary defines a cadaver as "A dead body, especially one intended for dissection." From first year through the second year at the Makerere University College of Health Sciences, medical students study anatomy. They have to use cadavers as specimen for their practical study.  They start these anatomy practical sessions as soon as their first semester at the college begins. However, these cadavers were living people at one time. So, who are they and where do they come from?

“Dissecting cadavers is an evolving tradition” ¹ and cadavers have been used in training of medical students for over 200 years. ² Executed criminals were the first ever to be used as cadavers but “As the number of criminals being executed decreased, it became commonplace to steal bodies from graves…” ² and at the time, anatomists were seen as nothing short of executioners. ² Family members also contributed to anatomy as the anatomists would even dissect them too as “William Harvey, the man famous for discovering the circulatory system” ² did. He “... was so dedicated that he dissected his father and sister.”²

By the 20^th century however, body snatching was no more, ² and with an improved education system in medical schools, “The medical profession received new esteem by diagnosing and healing more people.” ² This respect brought forth “a larger supply of cadavers” ²from “people like you and me who decide to donate their whole body for medical research when they die.” ² “Today, medical institutions cannot buy a body”² and “persons donating their body receive no financial compensation; this is truly their ultimate gift.” ³ A gift that has facilitated the training of medical students, the world over and almost all doctors that we see walking the corridors of hospitals today.

REFERENCES

1. How med students learn from cadavers. A rare peek at how doctors-to-be learn from bodies donated to science. [Online]. 2009 Nov 30 [Cited 2011 Nov 11]; Available from: URL:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34173673/ns/health-health_care/t/how-med-students-learn-cadavers/
2. Cadavers: Where do they come from? [Online]. 2007 [Cited 2011 Nov 11]; Available from: URL:http://diesmart.com/funerals/cadavers-where-do-they-come-from/
3. Use of the cadaver lab at Cornell College. [Online]. [Cited 2011 Nov 11]; Available from: URL:http://people.cornellcollege.edu/bchristie-pope/CadaverLab/CadaverLab_Rules.html