Will Medical Students Cadaver Dissection Experience Influence their Proclivity toward Body Donation?
Authors: Gebert John Thomas , Zhang Ming Xiaoming 
Published: June 2021

Objective

Previous work suggests that human dissection in medical school enhances a student's knowledge of and appreciation for the human body1. While most students report predominantly positive feelings toward their experiences in anatomy lab2, we do not currently understand the impact of cadaver dissection on a student's inclination to donate her own body. In this study we aim to determine whether human cadaver dissection impacts medical students' proclivity to donate their own bodies postmortem and whether initial inclination varies based on demographic factors.

Methods

We surveyed 140 first‐year medical students at the Baylor College of Medicine before they began anatomical dissection of human cadavers. The survey included items regarding race, religion, hometown, previous experience with human dissection, organ donor status, initial proclivity to donate one's own body and reasons underlying this proclivity. We employed Pearson's chi‐squared analyses to determine whether initial inclination to donate one's body varied based on the aforementioned factors. Students will be administered a similar survey again after completion of their anatomy course in February 2019. We will use this data to determine whether their experiences in lab influence their likelihood to donate their body.

Results

Before beginning cadaver dissection, nearly equivalent proportions of the class said that they would vs. would not donate their body for medical education (48% yes vs. 52% no). We found no correlation between race, religion, or age and proclivity toward body donation. Fifty‐five percent (55%) of those who are registered organ donors indicated they would donate their body vs. 29% of those who are not registered organ donors (OR=2.88, p=0.0002). Additionally, the proportion of reasons underlying proclivity varied significantly between those who would vs. would not be inclined to donate their bodies. Fifty‐two percent (52%) of those who said they would donate their body cited ethical reasons vs. 4% of those who said they would not (p<0.0001). In contrast, 12% of those who said they would donate their body cited religious reasons vs. 24% of those who said they would not (p=0.012).

Conclusions

We found that the best predictor of a student's initial proclivity toward body donation is organ donor status. While we found no correlation between demographic factors and proclivity toward body donation, we did find that the reasons underlying one's inclination toward or against donating her body varied significantly between the groups. Those who said they would donate their body were far more likely to cite ethical reasons, while those who said they would not donate were more likely to cite religious reasons. Come February we will finish analyses on the post‐lab survey to determine the effects of human dissection on inclination to donate one's body to medical education.

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