Why are all cadavers white?

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Do you mean Caucasian or just pale? If you mean Caucasian, that's probably due to the patient population that donates to your program. If you mean pale... maybe you should think about that question a little longer...
 
You should have been more clear. I think you actually meant caucasian...I noticed we didnt have any AA or asian cadavers. Guess I never thought about it really.. interesting.
 
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We did have one African American anatomical donor in my anatomy class, out of about 25 total. It could be that Caucasians are just more likely to donate their bodies. I would imagine that it is a very difficult decision with many factors to consider and one's cultural background would influence that decision, along with religious/spiritual beliefs.

On a semi-related note, I know that most Jews and Muslims would absolutely not donate their bodies because of their beliefs about death, afterlife, etc.
 
BigRedder said:
Do you mean Caucasian or just pale? If you mean Caucasian, that's probably due to the patient population that donates to your program. If you mean pale... maybe you should think about that question a little longer...
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God this made me laugh.
 
We had a couple AA and an Indian in our anatomy course... it just depends who volunteers to donate.
 
BigRedder said:
Do you mean Caucasian or just pale? If you mean Caucasian, that's probably due to the patient population that donates to your program. If you mean pale... maybe you should think about that question a little longer...
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:laugh:
 
'cause maybe some ethnic groups don't want to donate their bodies to The Man
 
We had white, black, and asian cadavers, might depend on where your program is located.
 
PCOMMA said:
?
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Hmmmm let's see Have you ever heard of the Tuskagee experiment? This has engrained into the African American community a distaste for medical experimentation and the community equates donation of cadavers for teaching purposes with that....
it is at least one explanation..
another has to do with cultural mores...and religious reasons....
 
we had a AA cadaver and a few hispanic and asians. I remember some rule our school had about not accepting bodies from beyond a certain radius from school. So it could be makeup of area you are in.
 
It doesn't matter. They all look the same on the inside.
 
While on the topic of cadavers... I've always wondered... how long have these people been dead? No one really says (I guess for privacy purposes), but its a mystery to me what the process and timing is between death and arrival in the anatomy lab...
 
For the people who are using the term AA, why are you assuming that the black cadavers are only Americans and that the other races may or may not be American. There are blacks who are not African American.
 
PCOMMA said:
?
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They're not....there were a few black and at least a couple of Asian cadavers present in our anatomy lab this year.

I think the racial composition of the cadavers varies based on which racial groups live in the area surrounding the school.
 
Siggy said:
For the people who are using the term AA, why are you assuming that the black cadavers are only Americans and that the other races may or may not be American. There are blacks who are not African American.
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i've noticed that anyone of african descent is called african-american in this country, whether they consider themselves to be american or not. and asian-americans can be here for several generations and they'll still just be called asian. i think the suffix -american only gets habitually tacked on to black people. you never hear about them caucasian-americans, even though they're EVERYWHERE :meanie:
 
ncguy2005 said:
While on the topic of cadavers... I've always wondered... how long have these people been dead? No one really says (I guess for privacy purposes), but its a mystery to me what the process and timing is between death and arrival in the anatomy lab...
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WHAT HAPPENS TO MY BODY AFTER STUDIES HAVE BEEN COMPLETED?
Upon completion of studies, the remains will be cremated and the ashes interred in one of our established cemeteries located in Philadelphia, Hershey and Pittsburgh. If a family wishes to have the ashes returned for private burial, special arrangements can be made. The Registry office must have a written request from the next of kin at the time of death of the donor. A family should be aware it may take up to two years or longer before the ashes may be available.
 
TeamZissou said:
My cadaver was a rather large (muscular) black man
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same here - all the other cadavers were caucasian. I think our group got kind of spoiled, because of the very prominent muscles in the extremities, made it more difficult to figure things out on the tiny older ladies.

I would agree it's based on cultural/religious beliefs. Though I appreciate those who do, I could never do this myself.
 
ncguy2005 said:
While on the topic of cadavers... I've always wondered... how long have these people been dead? No one really says (I guess for privacy purposes), but its a mystery to me what the process and timing is between death and arrival in the anatomy lab...
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Our school gave us the age, date of death, and cause of death of our cadavers. We also had a form to fill out where we added anything we found during our dissection which was given to the family.
 
sunset823 said:
same here - all the other cadavers were caucasian. I think our group got kind of spoiled, because of the very prominent muscles in the extremities, made it more difficult to figure things out on the tiny older ladies.
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Haha yup Octavius was used all the time to as a prime example for almost anything muscular but I agree it made the lil old ladies difficult to identify.🙄
 
Bacchus said:
WHAT HAPPENS TO MY BODY AFTER STUDIES HAVE BEEN COMPLETED?
Upon completion of studies, the remains will be cremated and the ashes interred in one of our established cemeteries located in Philadelphia, Hershey and Pittsburgh. If a family wishes to have the ashes returned for private burial, special arrangements can be made. The Registry office must have a written request from the next of kin at the time of death of the donor. A family should be aware it may take up to two years or longer before the ashes may be available.
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What if the donor does not want to be cremated? I have a woman's spine hanging in my garage. I would rather they do something interesting with my remnants after the students are finished me than just cremating me.
 
AbbyNormal said:
What if the donor does not want to be cremated? I have a woman's spine hanging in my garage. I would rather they do something interesting with my remnants after the students are finished me than just cremating me.
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I would imagine that would have to be worked out in advance. For example, in gross anatomy at my school, groups of two students were issued "bone boxes" with a complete set (well... technically half, but anatomy is one of the few classes where one can get around with only memorizing about half of the body) of bones. Half of the boxes were plaster, half were actual bones. Similarly, we do quite a number on cadavers during dissection. Lots of skinning. Lots of fat removal. Lots of isolating individual muscles, nerves, and veins. Removing bones (e.g. zygomatic arch). Probably the most violent thing we did during the dissection was to bisect the pelvis so we can get a better look at the cross section of the organs (yes, that is exactly what it sounds like). Despite treating the cadavers with the up-most respect possible, the demands of a proper educational dissection leaves very little undamaged. It's kinda of hard to see the caudate equina without cracks some vertebrae, and I imagine most family members would not like to see their loved ones in the final state post dissection.
 
.
 
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One of the bodies I have helped dissect had tons of schrapnel in it, was missing part of a foot and had more pins, plates and screws in his leg than I cared to count. Come to find out (at the memorial service...wasn't hard to figure out who the widow was talking about) the guy had earned four Purple Hearts during WWII. Shot three times and stepped on a land mine. One tough mother****er if you ask me. Finally took leukemia to stop him apparently. Life sucks sometimes.
 
Some programs keep their cadavers for more than 2 years. UC Davis had cadavers that are almost 10 years old. They were cut into prosections which were used to teach undergrads in the winter anatomy course. They kept so well for so long because the classes were very good about spraying them down with downy fabric softener, a great preservative.

About this thread, though- I think the original poster was just curious about the appearance of cadavers, but I hope no family members come on here and see us inquiring about such things on an SDN forum. Threads like this naturally generate insensitive comments... please think before you post.
 
when I toured the anatomy lab at UCSF, at least half of them were asian. I guess it also depends on the area of the country as well.
 
If I remember correctly, my cadaver at PCOM was black. For those not from the area, Philly has a large black population so that's not the answer. I think some of you may be missing the race of cadavers because they are, as one previous poster mentioned, pale.
 
We have a transgender cadaver (male-->female sex changed) here at DUCOM (Drexel)! That's awesome!

Now, that's very interesting my friend, if you ask me!
 
robu058 said:
We have a transgender cadaver (male-->female sex changed) here at DUCOM (Drexel)! That's awesome!

Now, that's very interesting my friend, if you ask me!
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That's pretty interesting!
 
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