Never Let Your Sense of Morals Keep You from Doing What's Right: Using Newly Dead Bodies as Educational Resources

Abstract:     
Aside from living human beings, newly dead bodies present the most realistic models available for allowing novice medical professionals to acquire the skills they need to perform certain invasive procedures. For many years, medical educators have taken advantage of opportunities presented by such bodies, encouraging beginners to use them for practicing essential professional skills. The last decade, however, has seen a fair amount of commentary criticizing and even condemning this long-standing educational practice. In this article, I present and defend a contrary point of view. Until synthetic devices whose educational value equals that of newly dead bodies become readily available, we should encourage rather than condemn use of a unique resource that can no longer be helped or harmed.

Keywords: newly dead bodies, educational value

Accepted Paper Series