Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA.
Anat Sci Educ. 2024 Jun;17(4):687-692. doi: 10.1002/ase.2373. Epub 2024 Jan 5.
Recent controversies over the mismanagement of body donors in US medical schools have raised public concerns over the ethical treatment of bodies in "anatomical gift" programs. Despite widespread moral outrage at such cases, medical students may still make seemingly inconsequential mistakes or jokes that in fact constitute acts of disrespect. This may partially be attributed to the process of desensitization in working with human remains, and indicates a further need to inculcate into medical students the ethical responsibilities of working with body donors. Donation agreement statements that lack specific information about the respectful treatment of bodies in the anatomy laboratory may serve as an additional point of concern for potential donors seeking reassurance about the future treatment of their bodies. This viewpoint draws from the anecdotal experiences of medical students to portray two scenarios of medical students' disrespectful conduct toward body donors, and constructs an account of moral respect for human remains based on respect for posthumous autonomy and respect in attitude. It then provides suggestions for US medical schools to incorporate this ethical framework into their anatomy curricula to instill respectful dispositions in its students and facilitate a more robust informed consent process for potential donors who entrust their bodies to medical students.
近期美国医学院校在处理遗体捐赠者方面的管理不善引发了公众对“解剖学礼物”项目中遗体处理方式的关注。尽管对这类事件普遍感到愤慨，但医学生仍可能会犯下看似无关紧要的错误或开玩笑，而这些行为实际上构成了不尊重的行为。这可能部分归因于接触人体遗骸过程中的脱敏现象，表明有必要进一步向医学生灌输处理遗体捐赠者的道德责任。捐赠协议中缺乏关于在解剖实验室中尊重遗体的具体信息的声明，可能会让潜在的捐赠者感到担忧，他们希望对自己遗体的未来处理方式得到保证。这一观点取自医学生的轶事经验，描述了医学生对遗体捐赠者不尊重的两种情况，并根据对死后自主性的尊重和态度上的尊重构建了对人体遗骸的道德尊重的说法。然后，它为美国医学院校提供了将这一道德框架纳入解剖学课程的建议，以培养学生的尊重态度，并为将遗体委托给医学生的潜在捐赠者提供更有力的知情同意过程。
