Human Anatomical Specimens Oversight

The use of human cadavers, bones, and other tissues has been vital to education and research on the human body for centuries. However, this history has also been fraught with ethical issues, such as issues of consent, structural violence, postmortem treatment, and unethical use of unclaimed bodies. To this day, it remains legal in some contexts to acquire human anatomical specimens without informed consent or to sell human anatomical specimens in private markets. This legality conflicts with current ethical standards, which assign human anatomical specimens the same ethical weight as living humans or animals. 

At UWM, we recognize the value that working with actual human anatomical specimens can provide when this work is conducted ethically. Ethical treatment encompasses many areas, including donor consent for the use of their bodies after death, identifying individuals (“custodians”) who accept responsibility for the donor bodies or specimens, care in handling, respectful and appropriate use, long-term care and maintenance when applicable, and central campus oversight and retention of appropriate documentation.