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Cadavers and Body Donation

11

Ok, this is abit of random question, but it came up over lunch (I know, very weird) and was wondering what all you guys who do dissection think...............

Did any of you think about donating your body science BEFORE you came a medical student, and now that you've seen what happens to them does it make you more or less inclined to do so?

Just a random question

Reply 1

ha_mint

i dont think i'd give my body to science in such a way that scientists would prod at me with knives and stuff but i think i would consider donating my organs to people who need them to survive.

Reply 2

randdom

20

I am unsure as to whether I would, I would deffinatly donate my organs. I did consider it before medical school because my great grandmother donated her body so it made e think about it.

Reply 3

JackieS

OP

11

randdom

I am unsure as to whether I would, I would deffinatly donate my organs. I did consider it before medical school because my great grandmother donated her body so it made e think about it.

Personal I'd definitely donate my organs..........but I'm not too sure about my whole body.................after seeing the way some of them get hacked at its kind of off putting. I admire anyone who would do it - its an amazing resource and I thank them loads for it...................I wonder if they knew exactly how much they were letting their bodies in for by agreeing to donate their bodies. Does anyone here know how much they get told about what will happen to them?

Reply 4

Daveo

16

Rather than donate my body to medical students i'd hope that my organs could be of some use in keeping someone alive or helping someone through a problem to imrpove their lives, but failing that i'd consider donating my body for medical students to hack to pieces.

Reply 5

keyka

I want all of my organs to be donated, but I'm not sure I'd want my body donated- pressumably if you have no organs the body isn't that useful?

Reply 6

Daveo

16

One thing i dont understand is why they don't take bodies of people who died of cancer, or a nervous disease?

Reply 7

blissy

15

I never would, after hearing what medical students do to their bodies and listening to the way they speak about them!!

Reply 8

Helenia

20

Daveo

One thing i dont understand is why they don't take bodies of people who died of cancer, or a nervous disease?

Because their tissues won't be in a normal state so it's not a very good reference model for students to learn from.

There was one in our DR who had died of pancreatic cancer but still been accepted. Her abdominal cavity was just a total mess, there were bits of tumour everywhere and it was impossible for them to work out what things were meant to look like without coming to look at other people's cadavers.

Reply 9

randdom

20

blissy

I never would, after hearing what medical students do to their bodies and listening to the way they speak about them!!

Most people I know are relitively respectful of the cadavers. We would get shouted at if anyone hears us joking etc and quite rightly so, obviously people aren't going to disect the cadavers pefectly as most of them will have no experiance in doing so before. However I think med students should always be respectful. My mum is going to donate her brain to the MS society when she dies (because she has ms) I think if anything I would want to do that as they want healty brains aswell and I feel strongly about MS research in particular.

Reply 10

belis

17

One thing i dont understand is why they don't take bodies of people who died of cancer, or a nervous disease?

The cadavar my group nis using died of breast cancer. We have only disected the upper limb at the moment so I don't know if this is going to couse problems in the future due to metastasis, hope not. It looked pretty scary though :/.

Reply 11

randdom

20

I cadaver at the moment died from bladder cancer, I dont know how this is going to effect the group who have the same cadaver but are in the year below up because they are doing the abdomen in the third term. So far we have only done the brain, but next term we do the reproductive organs (it might be prosection though) if we have to do them ourselves then we will probably see some of the tumours.

Reply 12

Daveo

16

so much for not using bodies which died of cancer then.

Reply 13

belis

17

And to answer the main question: there is no way I am going to donate my body for purpose of being cut up by medical students. They can have my organs for transplantation (statisticaly unlikely that I am going to die in a way that will make me suitanle donor anyway) but that is it.

Reply 14

Blates as

1

Daveo

so much for not using bodies which died of cancer then.

There are a few bodies in the DR that died of cancer at the moment. I def saw one that had died of colon cancer...

Reply 15

JackieS

OP

11

Daveo

One thing i dont understand is why they don't take bodies of people who died of cancer, or a nervous disease?

the guy in our DR said they don't take people with alzheimers as its a prion disease (Id don't know much about it, just saying what he said!!) and currently there is no proof that you can't transfer it by coming into contact with someone that had it (apparently.........)

Reply 16

xx hannah xx

3

Blates as

There are a few bodies in the DR that died of cancer at the moment. I def saw one that had died of colon cancer...

how strange, phil our anatomy demonstrator told us manchester dont take anyone who died of cancer cos apparently its not the most pleasant thing to dissect! hmm he doesnt really ever seem to know what he is talkin about though so....

Reply 17

randdom

20

xx hannah

how strange, phil our anatomy demonstrator told us manchester dont take anyone who died of cancer cos apparently its not the most pleasant thing to dissect! hmm he doesnt really ever seem to know what he is talkin about though so....

Maybe they only take particular cancers?

Reply 18

Muse

13

Unfortunately there's a growing shortage of cadavers for use in medical teaching, so much so that 2 courses had to recently drop their use of dissection in favour of models and 'multimedia' approaches. Cancer confined to specific parts of the body or individuals who died before the cancer reached an advanced stage of metastases can still be of benefit in anatomical teaching; we don't exactly have the option to be as picky as we once were.

Reply 19

randdom

20

Miles

Unfortunately there's a growing shortage of cadavers for use in medical teaching, so much so that 2 courses had to recently drop their use of dissection in favour of models and 'multimedia' approaches. Cancer confined to specific parts of the body or individuals who died before the cancer reached an advanced stage of metastases can still be of benefit in anatomical teaching; we don't exactly have the option to be as picky as we once were.

Which medical schools dropped disection?

Cadavers and Body Donation

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