full body dissections

**bpr** · 26-08-2008, 05:21 PM

Yes, these are people who have chosen in life to donate their bodies to science.
This can either be a general bequest and they will get allocated to a med school, or I believe that it may be an agreement with an individual med school.

**Randolf_Rolm1919** · 26-08-2008, 05:23 PM

It's important for me to know that. I assume they are mostly old-aged people who have passed away right?

**bpr** · 26-08-2008, 05:26 PM

Generally its older people, or those who are well aware they're dying, but you do get younger people too occasionally.

**Randolf_Rolm1919** · 26-08-2008, 05:33 PM

Younger people.....death by accidents or natural causes?

**sparky21** · 26-08-2008, 05:48 PM

Originally Posted by Randolf_Rolm1919

I see. Hey do you people know how cadavers are chosen? Like do these people sign an agreement before they died or their family signs an agreement etc.? I mean were they aware that their body was being used for dissection/prosection and medical studies etc.?

Cardiff do whole body dissection also. The people that donate their body have chosen to in life. They themselves contact the university and arrange it - of course discussing this with their relatives. All the donors are completely aware of what they are doing. It is therefore important that the opportunity that you are given is respected and that you make the most out of the learning opportunity. Not all universities use this form of teaching and it's becoming less popular with new technologies - so if you choose a university because they do dissection make the most out of it and respect the person who gave you the opportunity to learn such skills.

As a side note donors are often elderly and/or people who have a known/terminal illness. This is because under a certain age the law requires that a person has a postmortem or if a person dies unexpectedly or if they have not seen a doctor within 14 days of their death.