10 tips on working with human body donors in medical training and research

Abstract

Human body donors selflessly decided to make the ultimate gift to donate their bodies to education. Being on the receiving end, the health sciences education community owes it to the donors to ensure that they are being treated with utmost respect by promoting and developing high ethical standards and maximizing the benefits from this gift. Working with human body donors for research purposes has increased over the years, while regulations associated with these processes did not change. This article draws upon current literature and author’s experiences to offer practical tips for health educators and everyone working with body donors to achieve these goals. We offer 10 practical tips that help in starting the conversation about the best ways to work with body donors to maximize their contribution to health sciences education.

Human body donors at academic institutions in the United States of America: An investigative study

“…All studies on live human subjects require approval, and the same standard should be applied to human body donors. Balta et al (2022) recently recommended a committee that includes not only individuals involved in anatomy or medicine, but also individuals with a background in ethics or law (Balta et al, 2022). The results of this study showed that only a minority of institutional oversight committees involve individuals outside their programs' faculty and staff.…”

“…Champney (2011) suggested creating a committee for the oversight and approval of work with human body donors. A recent study discussed ethical oversight committees, emphasizing that such committees should include individuals with different backgrounds such as ethics and law along with individuals who have consented to donating (Balta et al, 2022).…”

Honoring human body donors: Five core themes to consider regarding ethical treatment and memorialization

“…Talarico, 26 Shaikh, 27 Champney, 30 and Balta et al 33 all specifically include honoring or acknowledging the gift of body donation in their proposals for ethical guidelines, however, several other guidelines indirectly address honoring the donors (see Table 1). 11,23,29,34,35 Since participating in rituals honoring the dead (e.g., funerals) is a culturally universal practice, it logically follows that nearly all of the published proposed ethical guidelines would include a recommendation to hold a formal memorial service to honor body donors.…”

The anatomist’s perspective today towards human body donation for procurement of cadavers for study of human anatomy

“…The legal and ethical framework governing body donation in Europe, discussing the current practice as well as making recommendations for good practice [19]. In an update of the same article, it was expanded upon possibilities of commercialization of human body parts and related weaknesses in the legal directives [20]. It was stressed on importance of knowing what is unethical, which will lead to optimum utilization of human body parts for teaching and research [20].…”

“…In an update of the same article, it was expanded upon possibilities of commercialization of human body parts and related weaknesses in the legal directives [20]. It was stressed on importance of knowing what is unethical, which will lead to optimum utilization of human body parts for teaching and research [20].…”