“Cadavers with a Soul”: A Qualitative Study of Individuals Who Donate Their Body

Abstract

Aim: The study was conducted to determine the thoughts of individuals who donate their body. Material and Methods: This study was qualitative research conducted using the case study design. The sample was determined with the purposeful sampling method and 9 individuals who stated that they would donate their body were interviewed. The data were collected between March and April 2022 with an information form and a semi-structured interview form and analyzed with the content analysis method. Results: The mean age of individuals was 67.11±4.10 years. Five of the participants were male and four were female. Eight out of nine people were married, all were university graduates and retired, and eight had good income level. Two main themes and five sub-themes were revealed in the research. The themes were determined to be support (contribution to health education, chain of immortality) and obstacles (pressure from family and religion, awareness, uncertainty). Conclusion: Individuals want to donate their bodies to contribute to health education by leaving a legacy for science and think they will be immortal by offering their cadaver for science. Additionally, they feel pressure due to families and religious beliefs and think that society is ignorant about body donation and that the functionality of the body donation system is inadequate.

Keywords

• Cadaver
• body donation
• thoughts
• qualitative study

Kaynakça

1. 1. Saw, A. (2018). A new approach to body donation for medical education: The silent mentor programme. Malaysian orthopaedic journal, 12(2), 68.
2. 2. Dissabandara, L. O., Nirthanan, S. N., Khoo, T. K., & Tedman, R. (2015). Role of cadaveric dissections in modern medical curricula: a study on student perceptions. Anatomy & cell biology, 48(3), 205-212.
3. 3. Flack N, Nicholson HD (2018) What do medical students learn from dissection? Anat Sci Educ 11:325–335. https://doi. org/10.1002/ase.1758.
4. 4. Wilson AB, Miller CH, Klein BA, Taylor MA, Goodwin M, Boyle EK, Brown K, Hoppe C, Lazarus M. 2018. A meta-analysis of anatomy laboratory pedagogies. Clin Anat 31:122–133.
5. 5. Kürkçüoğlu, A., Kosif, R., & Anlı, S. Ç. Beden Bağışı ve Anatomi Eğitimindeki Önemi. Kırıkkale Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Dergisi, 23(3), 645-655.
6. 6. Mueller, C. M., & Conway, M. (2019). Who Donates Their Bodies to Science? Analysis of Mississippi's Donor Pool Demographics. The FASEB Journal, 33(S1), 443-3.
7. 7. Ghosh, S. K., & Chakraborty, S. (2021). Voluntary body donation in India: perceptions of first year medical students. Investigación en Educación Médica, 7(27), 61-71.
8. 8. Habicht, J. L., Kiessling, C., & Winkelmann, A. (2018). Bodies for anatomy education in medical schools: an overview of the sources of cadavers worldwide. Academic Medicine, 93(9), 1293.

9. 9. Abbasi Asl, J., Nikzad, H., Taherian, A., Atlasi, M. A., Naderian, H., Mousavi, G., ... & Omidi, A. (2017). Cultural acceptability and personal willingness of Iranian students toward cadaveric donation. Anatomical sciences education, 10(2), 120-126.
10. 10. Rajasekhar, S. S. S. N., Aravindhan, K., Gladwin, V., & Chand, P. (2016). Body donation-consent from non-related persons: case series, review, and recommendations. Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research: JCDR, 10(9), AR01.
11. 11. Jones, D. G., & Nie, J. B. (2018). Does Confucianism allow for body donation?. Anatomical Sciences Education, 11(5), 525-531.
12. 12. Quiroga‐Garza, A., Reyes‐Hernández, C. G., Zarate‐Garza, P. P., Esparza‐Hernández, C. N., Gutierrez‐de la O, J., de la Fuente‐Villarreal, D., ... & Guzman‐Lopez, S. (2017). Willingness toward organ and body donation among anatomy professors and students in Mexico. Anatomical Sciences Education, 10(6), 589-597.
13. 13. Gürses, İ. A., Çelik, S., Mehmet, Ü. Z. E. L., Barut, Ç., Olgunus, Z. K., & Bilge, O. (2020). A proposal for body donation forms in Turkey: study of the Committee for Body Donation and Cadaver Monitoring. Anatomy, 14(3), 220-226.
14. 14. Zhang, L., & Ding, J. (2017). Commemorations and memorials in Chinese body donation programs. In Commemorations and Memorials: Exploring the Human Face of Anatomy (pp. 147-156).
15. 15. Viljoen, J. K. (2021). Assessing the perceptions of individuals with differing levels and backgrounds of education towards whole-body donation. Annals of Anatomy-Anatomischer Anzeiger, 233, 151604.
16. 16. Parthasarathy, P., & MS, T. (2018). Body donation and its relevance in anatomy learning. Drug Invention Today, 10.
17. 17. Manzanares‐Céspedes, M. C., Dalmau‐Pastor, M., Simon de Blas, C., & Vázquez‐Osorio, M. T. (2021). Body Donation, Teaching, and Research in Dissection Rooms in Spain in Times of Covid‐19. Anatomical Sciences Education, 14(5), 562-571.
18. 18. Mueller, C. M., Allison, S. M., & Conway, M. L. (2021). Mississippi’s whole body donors: Analysis of donor pool demographics and their rationale for donation. Annals of Anatomy-Anatomischer Anzeiger, 234, 151673.
19. 19. Siuta, J., Domagała, Z., Pluta, D., Tokarski, M., Iwan, D., Jurek, T., & Dobosz, T. Body donation as the basis for advance in medicine in past and today–meaning, principles, controversies. Advances in Biomedical Research–from COVID to Medical Humanities, 187.
20. 20. Oktem, H., Pelin, C., Kurkcuoglu, A., Yildirim, R. V., & Guvercin, A. C. Y. (2020). Attitudes of Turkish university employees and their relatives towards whole body and organ donation. Annals of Anatomy-Anatomischer Anzeiger, 229, 151426.
21. 21. Ciliberti, R., Gulino, M., Gazzaniga, V., Gallo, F., Vellone, V. G., De Stefano, F., ... & Baldelli, I. (2018). A survey on the knowledge and attitudes of Italian medical students toward body donation: ethical and scientific considerations. Journal of clinical medicine, 7(7), 168.
22. 22. Carmack, H. J., & DeGroot, J. M. (2020). Communication apprehension about death, religious group affiliation, and religiosity: predictors of organ and body donation decisions. OMEGA-Journal of Death and Dying, 81(4), 627-647.
23. 23. Naidoo, N., Al-Sharif, G. A., Khan, R., Azar, A., & Omer, A. (2021). In death there is life: perceptions of the university community regarding body donation for educational purposes in the United Arab Emirates. Heliyon, 7(7), e07650.
24. 24. Brassett, C., Cosker, T., Davies, D. C., Dockery, P., Gillingwater, T. H., Lee, T. C., ... & Wilkinson, T. (2020). COVID‐19 and anatomy: Stimulus and initial response. Journal of anatomy, 237(3), 393-403.
25. 25. da Costa Sobrinho, O. P., De Lucena, J. D., Oliveira da Silva, F. R., Brasileiro Leal, K. M., Ferreira Maciel Gusmão, J. N., Pinheiro Gusmão, C. T., ... & Santos Cerqueira, G. (2018). Body donation program for anatomical teaching: The perception of brazilian students. J Hum Anat, 2(2), 000125.
26. 26. Brum, S., Lora, G. F., Silva, E. D. A., & da Silva, A. P. (2018). Body Donation for The Study of Human Anatomy: A Literature Review. Anais do Salão Internacional de Ensino, Pesquisa e Extensão, 10(1).
27. 27. Singh, P., Phuyal, N., Khadka, S., & Gurung, M. (2021). Knowledge of Medical Students and Faculties of a Medical College Towards Human Body and Organ Donation: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study. Journal of the Nepal Medical Association, 59(234).