Here’s another work opportunity, transporting cadavers for educational use.

We did quite a few removals that went to Stanford, and that was through a funeral home that had the contract with Stanford. They always went directly to refrigeration, and then were processed later with fluids to make them last forever.

Every once in a while, we’d go back and pick up a couple boxes of parts, sometimes the whole person, for cremation. Stanford paid for it all. Their only stipulation was that the patient have no communicable disease like Hepatitis, AIDs or Tuberculosis, and that had to be certified by the doctor signing the death certificate.

Just about every state has a program like this, find out who they’re contracted with, and make that funeral home an offer. Many times, because the family is getting free disposition of the remains, they aren’t so formal as when a regular funeral home comes, so it’s a good opportunity to learn and learn from any mistakes.

Too many cadavers? Indiana considers sharing

By DOROTHY SCHNEIDER • dschneider@jconline.com • April 9, 2009

While it’s not often publicized, a program that allows Hoosiers to donate their bodies to science after their death has been gaining participants in recent years.
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The Indiana Anatomical Education Board, run by the Indiana University Medical School, registers donors and then arranges for the cadavers to be used for medical student training across the state, including at Purdue University.

The program has been getting roughly 225 donors in each of the past couple of years, which is an increase from the 150 it averaged years earlier, said Dr. David Burr, chairman of the Anatomical Education Board.

Now Indiana wants to share the extra cadavers it has available with medical school programs in other states. And a measure being considered by the legislature this spring would allow the state’s program to do so.

“There are states that have serious shortages,” Burr said. “Indiana doesn’t have a shortage right now so we want to help other states.”

Burr pointed to New York as one state with many medical programs but not enough cadavers to meet the needs in classrooms.

If Senate Bill 218 is approved, the Indiana program will be allowed to send cadavers it doesn’t need to other states.

Those bodies would then be returned after use, as all in-state bodies are, and cremated. The remains are then either returned to the families or buried in a communal site in Indianapolis.

The increase in donations may be due to a change in the program policy a few years ago that no longer requires the bodies to go first to a funeral home to be embalmed, Burr said.

“The advantage to them is there are no charges for them if they donate directly,” he explained. “Otherwise the funeral home would charge (families) for embalming fees, transport and other things.”

Medical programs utilize the cadavers for training doctors, dentists and even physical therapists. Students at the IU medical school on Purdue’s campus use cadavers in both undergraduate and graduate coursework.

“I look at it as crucial education,” said Jim Walker, a professor of anatomy in Purdue’s Basic Medical Sciences program. “They’re going to be working on human beings, so they should be practicing on them.”

Some schools have turned to computer simulations or alternate programs to substitute for dissection in the classroom, but Walker said there’s no real good substitution.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt that students who do dissection are far better,” he said.

Gordon Coppoc, director and assistant dean of the IU School of Medicine-Lafayette, said working on a human cadaver is a right of passage for medical students.

“We treat the cadaver with tremendous respect,” he said. “We make sure the students understand these people have donated their bodies to further education.”

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