Scooby is correct. Just to add on to what he said, the med schools, anatomy professors, and med students do treat the cadavers with utmost respect. It is an amazing gift that these people knowingly gave, and the med students know it. Med schools all handle this in slightly different ways. At my school, for example, we had a moment of silence at the beginning, and then at the end of the course we held a memorial service.
As far as feeling nervous about taking part in anatomy, I think every entering med student feels anxious about dissecting a human cadaver. If they don't feel anxious, then there's probably something wrong with them. :wink: After the first couple of days, though, people really start to adjust. Some people take longer than others to adjust, but usually even the most squeamish person will eventually be able to become much more comfortable with dissecting cadavers.
Personally, I don't think anatomy lab is nearly as bad as dog lab, partially because the anatomy subjects actually can give informed consent, while the dogs can't. We don't have a dog lab at our school, and I'm glad for that. I also feel that I've learned physiology just as well without the dog lab. But I don't mean to start a dog lab discussion on this thread.
As far as getting out of dissecting cadavers, I think there is a clause at most schools allowing you to get out of it if you have moral or religious objections to it, but I've never heard of anyone actually getting out of it. There's simply no good substitution for the cadavers for learning anatomy.
