Eur J Anat, 18 (4): 361-368 (2014)

Anatomy, respect for the body and body donation - a guide for good practice

Beat M. Riederer ^1,3 and José L. Bueno-López^2,3

¹Platform for Morphology and Department of Fundamental Neurosciences, Faculty of Biology and Medicine, University of Lausanne, Switzerland, ²Department of Neurosciences, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Spain, ³Members of the Trans-European Pedagogic Anatomical Research Group (TEPARG)

ABSTRACT As pointed out by many anatomists worldwide, an international debate on body donation and the use of the dissection of human cadavers in health-care studies is needed. Numerous countries have no donation programs in place, or difficulties in obtaining bodies for anatomy teaching. Consequently, the International Federation of Associations of Anatomists (IFAA), in their 2014 Beijing Meeting, has proposed the creation of an international body donation network and the provision of international help to countries with difficulties setting up donation programs. In two previous publications by the Trans-European Pedagogic Anatomical Research Group (TEPARG), a number of legal, ethical, cultural and religious aspects of current practice in body donation in European countries were reviewed. Now, we bring here to international attention some other aspects of body donation in Switzerland and Spain. In doing so, we wish to address specific questions, e.g., who can donate, where to enroll in the donation program, best practice in interacting with relatives of the deceased donors, issues raised by commercialization in the use of some human bodies, use of long-term preserved body parts and body parts nearly permanently preserved by means of plastination, ethical use of human bodies for medical research and public display. We also propose some principles of good practice for body donation.

Keywords: Body donation, European Community, Legal and ethical aspects