extension of the dog lab

Im not a med student yet, but I do think that dissectional anatomy is integral to learning the subject. I guess this has been discussed before, so i'd suggest you do a search.

 

Dude,

Sorry to break the news to you..EVERY FRIGGIN med school requires you to dissect cadavers. That's called ANATOMY!

Jeez...are you in high school or something? Oh $hit, you are! (just saw your profile) haha...ok...just relax man. Focus for now on dissecting the rats and rabbits you'll be doing in college.

But seriously, if you have problems dissecting a cadavor, how will you handle when your first patient dies?

The people who you dissect have written that they would like to be donated to science and they know what they are getting into. It is not disrespectful b/c they know what is going on...also, I believe most schools do something like a moment of silence for the bodies and thanks before actually going and starting to cut.

 

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. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="wink.gif" /> 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.