The donation system of bodies for use in medical education in Sweden

Yıl 2008, Cilt: 2 Sayı: 1, 16 - 21, 01.10.2008

Gunnar Grant

https://doi.org/10.2399/ana.08.016

Öz

In 1964 the World Health Organization (WHO) arranged a workshop in Uppsala, Sweden, to study new ways and methods of improving the teaching of anatomy. An important matter of discussion was a donation system of bodies for use in anatomical dissection. The report from the workshop was prepared by the Regional Office for Europe and distributed to the governments of member states in the region. It included information on donation systems from countries where these had been used and was placed at the disposal of other interested countries. In Sweden this meant the introduction of an accepted system for receiving bodies for anatomical dissection and the abolition in 1973 of an old order to different public institutions to supply bodies for dissection. That was out of date in a modern society and did not function properly. Since the introduction of the donation system in Sweden, every single specimen for anatomical dissection derives exclusively from donations by free will of people who have decided in their lifetime to donate themselves, for the benefit of medical education. The Christian religion, which is still dominating in Sweden, although the country has become successively more secularized, creates no hindrance for donations. Special forms are used. One copy is kept by the donator, another by the department. The donated bodies are embalmed using an alcohol-glycerol-phenol solution, without formaldehyde. The supply of donated bodies allows specialists from our hospitals to carry out surgical interventions on the donated bodies, for the benefit of their training.  

Anahtar Kelimeler

body donation system, teaching of anatomy, Sweden