The Shortage of Cadavers in Medical Schools

Everyday the number of students that are applying to medical school is increasing rapidly due to the vast amount of desire to become a doctor. Medical schools provide the best hands on experience and training for the future doctors of the world and also provides a great of intensive coursework. Each year around 55.3 million people die, and you’d think that since people are always dying that would ultimately mean there are endless cadavers but that not the case.There’s about 20,000 bodies that are being donated to science each year and along with the growing demand for cadavers, there is not enough for everyone to receive one. Without cadavers, future doctors will leave medical school without the right amount of anatomical knowledge, which will become a huge setback once they graduate and start working with real patients.

Having cadavers in medical school is an essential, medical students need to know about the human anatomy and physiology before anything. The increase of demand for cadavers are becoming a huge problem because there isn't enough for programs and also for learning. Medical students aren't the only one who uses cadavers, doctors used them after medical school for continuing their training and scientific researchers use them as well for all kinds of tests and experiments. Pharmaceutical companies use cadavers for treatments and also for new procedures. Along with the limited amount of cadavers, many medical students would have to turn to the alternative option of virtual dissection and dissection with high-tech mannequins. With the alternative options, medical students are missing out on the opportunity of learning hands on and being able to see the body along with it’s dimensions. More than 100 medical schools face the problem of cadaver shortages, it has reached to the point where some medical students even complete school without learning the art of dissecting. A cadaver is somewhat of a first patient for a medical student and that can’t be replaced with computer graphics or dummy’s. When medical students meet their cadavers for the first time, they usually are nervous or excited depending on their ability remain calm when seeing a dead person. There is something about that moment that cannot be substituted with something else. Most medical schools are receiving around 20 or less cadavers each year for learning, which means that students will have crowded groups in lab to do the dissections. Some students would have to work on cadavers that have already been dissected, which is a huge setback. Cadavers make the best teachers for students and they are very useful. A huge problem for medical schools is the lack of donation, many families shy away from the idea of giving away the body of a family member and the common reason behind it is usually religious reasons or cultural reasons. Getting the cadaver is actually just the first step, universities need to have healthy dead bodies with no traces of diseases, disability,