Death of the teaching autopsy: Summary of responses

doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7432.167

BMJ 2004;328:167 (17 January), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7432.167

Letter

Death of the teaching autopsy

Summary of responses

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Respondents to the education and debate articles on the deathof the teaching autopsy and on obtaining consent for autopsyunanimously agreed that this is a sorry state of affairs.^1
2Most other countries seem also to be faring no better than NewZealand.

The value of the procedure is not well publicised or communicated,even within the medical profession. Recommendations to remedythis include educating the population at large and generallyraising awareness of and thus interest in teaching autopsy.Jacob George, cardiology research fellow in Dundee, suggeststhat "With the gradual decline in hospital postmortems, medicalschools should seriously look into the coroner's postmortemas an effective teaching tool."

Medical professionals are called on to set a good example bydonating their bodies to research. "If my body is not suitablefor dissection by medical students I would like it to be usedin the autopsy room," writes Owen . . . [Full text of this article]

Birte Twisselmann, technical editor

BMJ