Respect for the dead

Cadaver lab was really cool. Seeing and holding real organs was an extremely intense and powerful learning experience. There was also a humbling realization, that the heart you were holding was actual beating in a live human being a few weeks or months before.

As such, cadaver lab was a pretty solemn experience… but by the same token, the intense emotional aspect would lead one to want to joke around as a means of stress relief, yet, we did not.

I saw a video a while back, where some med students had a little fun with a cadaver. While I can relate to the need for stress relief, it also bothered me a little as to the lack of respect for the dead man on the table. The guy no doubt was someones son, father, or brother. How would they feel, if they saw what was going on? I debated on posting a web link, but decided against doing so. While the joke they played on each other was pretty trivial, I would really hate to have a relative see such a thing. Donating ones body for medical education is a wonderful thing. It does not need any negative connotations associated with it. I do hope those students do get chewed out a bit, its not cool if people are disinclined to denote because of such actions.

I guess I should mention that the image on the right is a spinal cord. It might not be obvious to those who have never seen one before.