WHEN A BODY... It is not very often that one sees a two-column, eight-inch story on the front page of a daily newspaper seeking dead, human bodies. On June 8, 1978 our home town paper printed a informative piece - "Virginia Schools Need Cadavers" - prepared by Associated Press writers, and, hence, it would seem was printed elsewhere as well.
There was nothing wrong about such an item, but it seemed remarkable enough, at that time, for me to clip it and place it in one of my notebooks of things I might write about some day.
It was, of course, common knowledge that medical schools required the bodies of departed humans for study and instructional purposes. That was all to our advantage most people seemed to feel it proper to do so and thus provide better doctors, surgeons and specialists of various kinds for our health care programs. The word "cadaver" was still an odd one except to crossword puzzle persons; sort of a left-over term from the study of the dead language of Latin which was, by that enlightened time of 1978, being dropped by more and more school systems.
Most of us, I think, read the article. The lead-in line of the actual copy clarified the "Virginia Schools" as "Virginia's medical schools" which helped us somewhat but the term "cadavers" remained steady in place.
But, it also edged toward understanding in statistics which followed:"The state anatomical program received one hundred ninety-six bodies in the last twelve months, including fifty-five unclaimed bodies from from public institutions and one hundred forty-one that were donated."
Three schools were concerned. Medical College of Virginia, the University of Virginia and Eastern Virginia Medical School. Walter Gooch, supervisor of the anatomical program, provided the figures for the 1976-77 time period above, and he pointed out that each of the schools had 140 bodies for their students. He expressed the hope that the forthcoming drive might meet the wishes of the supervisors of the schools who like to have one cadaver for every two students. The cadavers are, he pointed out, essential for research and teaching of future doctors and the shortage is causing problems, he added. He decried that fact that "some bodies are being used for the second academic year because there aren't enough bodies being donated."
Most of the 4,500 people who had signed the application forms were young people. They often move about a lot,even out of state and simple forget they made such a commitment in their younger years. We seldom check a person's driver's license when they die. Few things seem more useless at such a time. Another reason may be found in the fact that our communications system has improved and we now identify many individuals who were destined to be listed as 'unknown" heretofore. Medical records are more complete, today, and our computer skills have, no doubt, improved the teaching technologies of our medical colleges since 1978.
In 1978, Supervisor Walter Gooch of the Anatomical Program for Virginia, estimated the medical colleges needed 250 to 300 bodies as donations annually.
Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 9-14-06 [529wds]
