Chapter 4: Above Ground: Anatomical Embalming Roles in Society, 2nd Edition 1 CE Hour
By: Taylor Walding Course overview Studies of the human body help explore its function, healing capabilities within itself, and aging process. Even with advances in modern technology like computer simulation and virtual reality, developments in surgery and medicine continue to rely on sanitarily preserved human specimens to examine and practice upon with room for experimentation and improvement by various practitioners, including surgeons, therapists, physicians, and nurses. Anatomical embalming plays a vital role in preserving the bodies of decedents who in life donated their bodies to science or whose families chose donation on their behalf. Learning objectives After completing this course, the learner will be able to: Identify the differences between traditional embalming at a funeral home and anatomical embalming.
Anatomical embalmers prepare the deceased for sanitary studies of how human anatomy works in the confines of educational institutions of medical science. To this day, anatomical embalming continues to support developments in these studies. The mortuary industry supports medical and educational institutions in this preservation of cadavers in the removal and thorough preparation of the deceased. This course outlines the contrast in methods of preservation of the dead between funeral home and anatomical embalming, citing the definition, origins, and modern functions of anatomical embalming in the 21st century.
List the steps involved with the anatomical embalming process. Recall the benefits of anatomical embalming.
INTRODUCTION
Above Ground: Anatomical Embalming Roles in Society outlines the underexposed field of anatomical embalming in the mortuary industry. The course elaborates on its history, Origins of anatomical embalming Anatomical embalming is the sanitization and preservation of a human corpse—referred to as a decedent or more specifically a donor or cadaver when referencing anatomical embalming—for study and practice in medical schools across the world. This method of embalming has emerged as a more ethically and hygienically practical method to preserve decedents as cadavers for scientific study. Today, programs across the world accept donors who will their body to scientific study after death, providing small groups of students the hands-on study of the human form. Anatomical embalming origins date to the 18th century when doctors used preserved cadavers to learn the ins and outs of human anatomy firsthand. Preservation as a whole began long ago with ancient Egypt’s mummification process. Far before anatomical embalming, two physicians, Herophilus and Erasistratus, in 3rd-century Greece originated the practice of the dissection of cadavers in Alexandria for scientific study. Interest in the dissection of human remains subsided for centuries until medieval Italy in the 14th century, specifically by Leonardo da Vinci. Scientific revolutions at that time demanded the practical study of cadavers with two major obstacles standing in the way of scientific progress: Religious and social opposition and lack of knowledge on how to preserve a body. The first obstacle, resulting from the majority opposition of religious authorities and overall negative social stigmas, stood in the form of unavailability and scarcity. Most cadavers then were either bodies of criminals or people without families to circumvent the funeral rites of the deceased individuals intended for anatomical study. Large open-air classroom structures called anatomical theaters
its comparison to traditional funeral home embalming, and educational and environmental benefits of anatomical embalming.
hosted the dissection of one cadaver every five years for many physicians to learn from all at once. This severely insufficient number of cadavers for study, coupled with need, led to unethical acts like grave robbing, with those responsible dubbed body snatchers by the religious authorities and resurrectionists by the scientific community. The need for bodies for anatomical study in early 19th- century England resulted in situations like the infamous murders conducted by William Burke and William Hare of 16 individuals for sale to medical institutions for study. The term burking was even coined after Burke. It described the method these murderers used to intoxicate victims with a chloroform cloth to unconsciousness before taking their lives. Ironically, when caught, Burke and Hare were publicly hanged and used for anatomical study themselves as a public reminder of punishment for future grave robbers. This also helped dissuade social acceptance of the study of dead human bodies for the furthering of science. The Warburton Anatomy Act, passed in Britain in 1832, excluded the use of criminals’ bodies for dissection and instead created an avenue for willful donation before death. In the U.S. in 1968, the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act was enacted. This act prioritized the donors’ wishes over those of their kin and helped shift public perception of body donation from perceived religious impurities to scientifically beneficial advancements. The second major obstacle solved by the practice of anatomical embalming was the unfavorable circumstance of studying a rapidly decomposing corpse without preservation to protect the students studying the body. In the days of anatomical theaters, the lack of refrigeration limited favorable seasons of study to winter months, and
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Book Code: FTX1626
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