Bodies, organs and saving lives: old respects and new dilemmas

Saunders, John

doi:10.7861/clinmedicine.9-6-549

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Hence, outcomes of choices may not be reduced to their external consequences. The status quo may reflect the careful judgment of the decision maker that donation is not just an abstract decision, but that there may turn out to be concrete reasons (cultural or personal) in the relevant situation that his or her relatives may be better at taking into account if the decision point is ever arrived at (see also Saunders 2009). The existing status quo may therefore, at least in principle, be a psychologically prominent and rational choice delegating one's decision making in the face of uncertainty, rather than a mere bias.…”

Section: Should We Be "Nudging" For Cadavericmentioning

confidence: 99%

Should We Be “Nudging” for Cadaveric Organ Donations?

Hansen

2012

The American Journal of Bioethics

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Section: Should We Be "Nudging" For Cadavericmentioning

confidence: 99%

Should We Be “Nudging” for Cadaveric Organ Donations?

Hansen

2012

The American Journal of Bioethics

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“…In alliance with religious authorities, the evolution of social attitude towards death from the second half of the 19th century also contributed to the eventual introduction of body donation campaigns (Saunders, 2009 ). In a nutshell, the orthodox outlook towards death and a dead body, which existed since the ancient ages, gradually shifted towards a more progressive mindset.…”

Section: The Social Reforms Promoted By Consensual Body Donationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Sun Also Rises: Tracing the evolution of humanistic values in anatomy pedagogy and research, including cadaveric acquisition practices

Bhattacharjee

Ghosh

2023

Journal of Anatomy

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Anatomy has always been at the intersection of the socio‐cultural and political landscape, where new ideas constantly replace older wisdom. From ancient Egyptians through the Greeks, and then the Romans, finally culminating into the European Renaissance—all the significant eras of human civilisation have left their insignia and distinct marks on the evolution of anatomical practices. Despite its utility as a tool for anatomy pedagogy and research that has proven its worth over millennia, cadaveric dissection has particularly been subject to political and social vicissitudes. A major debate about anatomical dissection lay with the ethical considerations, or its lack thereof, while acquiring corpses for demonstration in the dissection halls. From antiquity, anatomical dissection—often synonymous with medical studies—had typically been carried out on the dead bodies of executed criminals with certain laws, such as the Murder Act of 1752, facilitating such uses. Gradually, the uses of unclaimed bodies, resourced primarily from the impoverished sections of society, were also introduced. However, these body acquisition protocols often missed the crucial element of humanism and ethical considerations, while knowledge augmentation was taken as sufficient reasoning. Unfortunately, a gross disregard towards humanistic values promulgated heinous and illegal practices in acquiring corpses, including grave robbery and even murders like in the case of Burke and Hare murders of 1828. Follow‐up legislation, such as the Anatomy Act of 1832, and comparable laws in other European nations were passed to curb the vile. What distils from such a historical discourse on humane values in anatomy dissection, or medical science in general, is that the growth and integration of humanism in anatomy have never been linear, but there were intermittent and, yet, significant disruptions in its timeline. For example, there were serious human rights violations in anatomical practices during the Third Reich in Germany that perpetrated the holocaust. The medical community has kept evolving and introducing new moral values and principles while using such egregious events as lessons, ultimately resulting in the Declaration of Helsinki in 1964. This article revisits the heterogeneous journey of integrating humanistic values in anatomy practice. Such humanistic traits that, like medical science, have also developed over centuries through the inputs of physicians, researchers, and philosophers—from Greece to modernity with an important stopgap at the Renaissance—are a fascinating lore that deserves to be re‐envisioned through the lens of contemporary values and ethos. In parallel to human medicine, humanistic values continue to influence veterinary medicine, a welcome development, as our society condemns animal cruelty in any form. There are lessons to be learned from this historical journey of how humanism shaped many of the concepts that anatomists use now. Finally, and most importantly, it might prevent the medical community from repeating the same mistakes by cautioning against the traps that are there, and in a convoluted world where morality as such is eroding from our social fabric, will always be there. Such historical account acts as a righteous, ethical, and contextual compass to guide the existing and upcoming anatomists in discerning between light and dark, right and wrong, and roads—to be or not to be—taken.

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Transplantation and consent

Saunders

2024

Medicine

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Bodies, organs and saving lives: old respects and new dilemmas

Cited by 5 publications

References 7 publications

Should We Be “Nudging” for Cadaveric Organ Donations?

Should We Be “Nudging” for Cadaveric Organ Donations?

The Sun Also Rises: Tracing the evolution of humanistic values in anatomy pedagogy and research, including cadaveric acquisition practices

Transplantation and consent

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