Dissection: A Fate worse than Death?

Abstract

The teaching of Anatomy in medical schools has significantly declined, and doubts have been raised over whether or not doctors of today are fully equipped with anatomical knowledge required to practice safely. The history of anatomy teaching has changed enormously over centuries, and donating your body to medical science after death is very different today, compared with the body snatching and exhumations of the 18th and 19th centuries. With stories of public outcry, theft and outright murder, the history of anatomical education is a fascinating one. History has made an abundance of significant anatomical discoveries, is it not fundamental that medical students today are aware of the great lengths that our peers went to in order to obtain such pioneering discoveries?