Do need cadavers in the medical education?

Abstract

The question about the necessity, the possibility and the importance of the use of human corpses in the training of doctors is closely linked with the quality of the basic medical education and was repeatedly discussed at scientific meetings and at educational meetings. There is a need to review by the professional community its contents. The problem, which affects in this article, has the character of the discussion and involves a number of complex and ambiguous institutional, ethical and legal issues that directly determine the quality of training of future physicians in the modern medical university. Their spectrum lies in a wide range from of wholesale rejection of the need for cadavers in teaching of the anatomy and to their exclusive use with the extremely negative attitude to the latest digital technology, which is also clearly unacceptable, as the first one. Russian experience of using cadavers in the anatomical teaching practice and in the research has some of its own specific features that distinguish it from the practices of other countries. In the article outlines the main regulatory issues of the procedures for the obtaining, using and disposing of the cadaveric material for the anatomical teaching practices, including those not regulated by law. It is noted that the basic principles of the body and organ donation for medical training and the research should be regulated at the level of the World Health Organization or intergovernmental agreements. In developing these principles should be involved professional communities of anatomists, lawyers, doctors and the general public of all the countries concerned.