Not enough bodies

It's a medical school tradition. At the start of the course you were presented with somebody who would help you learn, and whom you'd get to know well. You might even meet his or her family. These days that person is more likely to be a personal tutor than your own cadaver. Group prosections and supervised anatomical demonstrations might be threatened because of the shortage of bodies.

Some London medical schools report that they get just over half the bodies that they need. Imperial College's anatomy department needed 67 cadavers for the academic year starting this September. They received 38. King's College London needed 61 and got 48. St George's wanted 50, but received just 33.

Louise Evans works at the London Anatomy Office, the organisation responsible for allocating cadavers to medical schools in the south east of England. She admits there is a problem—but not a crisis.