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http://www.centurylink.net/news/rea...ws_id=19285473&src=most_popular_viewed&page=1
GARY, Ind. (AP) When medical students have finished their study and practice on cadavers, they often hold a respectful memorial service to honor these bodies donated to science.
But the ceremonies at one medical school have a surreal twist: Relatives gather around the cold steel tables where their loved ones were dissected and which now hold their remains beneath metal covers. The tables are topped with white or burgundy-colored shrouds, flags for military veterans, flowers and candles.............
More than three dozen students, donors' relatives and campus staff members crowded the anatomy lab during Friday's memorial, surrounding the tables and standing solemnly along the room's perimeter. Some dabbed their eyes as prayers and remembrances were said, but faces were mostly stoic and there was no sobbing. The lab's usual odor of formaldehyde was strangely absent, masked perhaps by the sweet aroma of bouquets decorating the cadaver tables............
"I think it is appropriate in that we honor them in the setting in which they desired to give what they viewed as their last gift to humanity," he said.
Malik, the medical student, said knowing the donors' identities and meeting their families enriches the students' medical education.
"Once you put a name and a face to the body that you're working with, once you kind of put an identity to it, you kind of connect to it in a really meaningful and powerful way," he said...........more at link.......
GARY, Ind. (AP) When medical students have finished their study and practice on cadavers, they often hold a respectful memorial service to honor these bodies donated to science.
But the ceremonies at one medical school have a surreal twist: Relatives gather around the cold steel tables where their loved ones were dissected and which now hold their remains beneath metal covers. The tables are topped with white or burgundy-colored shrouds, flags for military veterans, flowers and candles.............
More than three dozen students, donors' relatives and campus staff members crowded the anatomy lab during Friday's memorial, surrounding the tables and standing solemnly along the room's perimeter. Some dabbed their eyes as prayers and remembrances were said, but faces were mostly stoic and there was no sobbing. The lab's usual odor of formaldehyde was strangely absent, masked perhaps by the sweet aroma of bouquets decorating the cadaver tables............
"I think it is appropriate in that we honor them in the setting in which they desired to give what they viewed as their last gift to humanity," he said.
Malik, the medical student, said knowing the donors' identities and meeting their families enriches the students' medical education.
"Once you put a name and a face to the body that you're working with, once you kind of put an identity to it, you kind of connect to it in a really meaningful and powerful way," he said...........more at link.......