Hi everyone, new member. I was all ready to give up on my dream of going to medical school an becoming a DPT, since for religious reasons i cannot do dissections or even handle parts of a dead body. After stumbling on to this site and reading about LECOM, I was wondering if anyone had any more insight into this program or any others with regard to dissection, and post medical school, for that matter. THank you all for helping to fulfill the dream!
D.O. schools without dissection
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Don't know that there is any school that does not require any time in the cadaver labs. May not have to actively dissect, but will still be tested by using them as far as I am aware. In addition, even DPT school has dissections of the feet and exams over them. I don't know which part if not all are against your religion, but I would highly look into this before spending money on applications. Call and ask the schools individually.
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LECOM seton hill is the only one that I know of. They don't have a lab at all. Call them and ask about it though becuase I don't know if they're trying to get one. Also, I think the PBL path at LECOM Erie doesn't do it either (because of association w/ Seton Hill and branch campus rules or something). They used to but I'm pretty sure they can't any more. Like the above said, just call and ask. I know there were people in my class who couldn't do dissection (the cutting) at all but could still handle. The only problem I see is depending on the strictness of your religious beliefs you may also have issues on rotations (anything path related comes to mind mostly). I guess it depends on a)if slides/samples count and b) if recently deceased count (can you not touch/handle any? because a patient dying then counts as well). Obviously that's not for me to know and 100% your call, best of luck to you.
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Perhaps you'd be more comfortable with another career. Even if you don't do any dissecting in anatomy, do you think you'll get through rotations without having to deal with death? You'llh be in on codes and stuff where you will be asked to do compressions on a patient who is "dead", in an effort to undo the deadness. They'll ask you to take pulses and maybe put the ultrasound on them to look at the heart.
I cannot imagine that you could possibly make it through med school anywhere without handling dead people. If I were you, I would discuss this with a religious leader in your faith, and maybe find a physician of this faith as well, and see what they have to say.
Anatomy lab is the least of your worries. In there, you can just stand back and watch other people dissect, if that's the only problem.
I cannot imagine that you could possibly make it through med school anywhere without handling dead people. If I were you, I would discuss this with a religious leader in your faith, and maybe find a physician of this faith as well, and see what they have to say.
Anatomy lab is the least of your worries. In there, you can just stand back and watch other people dissect, if that's the only problem.
I guess I should clarify. If there is a patient in front of me, or if I am needed, I am able to work on the patient until he/she dies, then I have to leave the room. I am a jewish priest, the priesthood prohibits contact with a dead body if only for educational purposes; if it is a matter of life and death, its fair game
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I think you need to get some clarification from your religion. What is "death"? There are plenty of patients who will "core" - i.e. die - who will need CPR, intubation, drugs, etc. before they are fully pronounced "dead". And yet they have no heartbeat, no respirations while they are worked on. And what if a child comes into the ED with cold water drowning? No heartbeat, no respirations, but the rule is you work them until they are warm and dead. And what about cardiac surgery where the patient is on bypass? Heart not beating.. full life support. Is that patient "dead" in your religion?
If you can't do those things because the patient is "dead" then perhaps medicine isn't for you. You would not be able to fully participate in an ICU rotation, an ED rotation, perhaps even a surgery rotation, an IM rotation... you would have to go to a rotation site and a school willing to work with you on this restriction.
And if you can't have contact with any dead body, what about prosections? They're still dead. you have to identify parts. I could see this being avoided if the med school was willing to take pictures and have you do a picture exam, but this might be exceedingly difficult depending on the picture they give you.
I'm not trying to be a jerk or dissuade you, but rather bringing situations to your attention to reconsider whether you can indeed go through medical school with your particular restrictions, and that you may have to contact each medical school you wish to apply to in order to see if appropriate accomodations can be made.
If you can't do those things because the patient is "dead" then perhaps medicine isn't for you. You would not be able to fully participate in an ICU rotation, an ED rotation, perhaps even a surgery rotation, an IM rotation... you would have to go to a rotation site and a school willing to work with you on this restriction.
And if you can't have contact with any dead body, what about prosections? They're still dead. you have to identify parts. I could see this being avoided if the med school was willing to take pictures and have you do a picture exam, but this might be exceedingly difficult depending on the picture they give you.
I'm not trying to be a jerk or dissuade you, but rather bringing situations to your attention to reconsider whether you can indeed go through medical school with your particular restrictions, and that you may have to contact each medical school you wish to apply to in order to see if appropriate accomodations can be made.
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It is a matter of life and death! We don't go touch dead bodies just for the hell of it. We do it so that we learn the anatomy of the body. Why do you do this? So you can use your anatomy knowledge to help people one day. God will probably forgive you because you're not just running to a graveyard, digging up a corpse, and dancing around with it.
The majority of people here will probably admit that cadaver work played a significant part in their anatomy education. There is stuff that is just too hard to understand from simply reading a book.
As for LECOM-erie, the PBL pathway does not have cadaver dissections at this moment, but it is rumored that they might be bringing them back because anatomy without cadavers = stupid. LECOM is no guarantee.
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Touro-NY had some sort of set up for Orthodox Jews so they could observe from a different room or something. Contact schools and ask them if they have a system in place or some sort of religious exemption regarding anatomy lab.
Duplicate in Pre-Osteo: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=721964
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closing since this is a duplicate thread and it is a pre-med issue.
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