An Ethical Dilemma? How donor dissection influences medical students' perceptions of ethics
Authors: Stephens Georgina Caitlin , Rees Charlotte , Lazarus Michelle 
Published: June 2021

The objective of this study was to explore how anatomy education impacts medical students' perceptions of ethics. Donor dissection as anatomy pedagogy remains debated. While short‐term anatomy knowledge gains may not be impacted by dissection, studies suggest that student anxiety and stress levels are. However, compared to clinical settings, donor dissection may provide a lower stress environment for introducing death and dying. Although donor dissection may also impact professional development such as teamwork, studies exploring what else students learn from dissection are limited. A potentially rich lens to explore the role of donors in dissection may be medical ethics. To improve the knowledge base related to anatomy education and medical ethics, we evaluated the longitudinal impacts of donor dissection on medical students' perception of ethics.

A longitudinal qualitative study was undertaken at an Australian university where student responses to online discussion forums and focus groups were analysed using framework analysis. Demographic data was also collected on student gender, religiosity and ancestry, with the results being analysed for any patterns across these demographic variables.

Five major themes related to ethics in anatomical education were identified: 1. Dignity, 2. Beneficence, 3. Consent, 4. Justification for versus the necessity of dissection and 5. Dichotomy of objectification and personification. The dominant themes of students' ethical perceptions changed with time, with a shift from a focus on aspects of the donor as a person (i.e. themes 1–3), toward the utility of the donor in anatomy education (i.e. theme 4). Key patterns by demographic variables included the theme of consent, which was more frequently identified by female students. Beneficence was more frequently discussed by participants of Asian ancestry, while the sub‐theme of dignity and bodily integrity was more frequently identified by students identifying as religious.

The impact of donor dissection on students' perceptions of ethics is complex. Prior to this study, most investigations focused only on pre‐ and/or post‐class data collection scenarios. However, the longitudinal approach presented here suggests a strong impact of donor dissection on priming students' focus on medical ethics, but this changing over time. Future educational directions based on this research will focus on potential interventions considering how student demographics could impact perceptions of ethics amongst further cohorts. This research suggests that donor dissection has impacts on students beyond simple anatomical knowledge acquisition; that anatomy can play a vital role in early professional development of medical students. Furthermore, these results suggest further advocacy for formal, and purposeful integration of medical ethics with anatomy education.

Support or Funding Information

This research was conducted with the aid of a Learning, Teaching and Research Grant from the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at Monash University. This grant was awarded to M. Lazarus.

This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.