Med school dissection students form an unusual bond: Getting to know family of a cadaver donor

Students form bond with family of a cadaver donor

GARY, Ind. — Every year, thousands donate their bodies to science and become an essential part of medical training.

Donors are usually anonymous and dissections aren’t really talked about much outside the anatomy lab. But Indiana University’s Northwest campus, in Gary, has an unusual program that encourages medical students to get to know donors’ families. They share clinical and personal information about the donors. And relatives are even invited to memorial services in the anatomy lab.

Ernest Talarico (tal-uh-REE’-koh) is assistant director of medical education there. He created the program because of his own experience as a student, when crude nicknames were sometimes given to cadavers. Talarico says these bodies’ names and lives should be treated with respect.