“Dead people receive more flowers than living ones because regret is stronger than gratitude” Anne Frank
At the beginning of the utterly fascinating dissection webinars I have been following, we start the talk by being reminded that some amazing people have donated their bodies for the purpose of this clinical study. Many people are registered organ donors (personally I am in favour of an opt OUT system rather than having to opt in) but would you donate your entire body for scientific / anatomical research? Does that conjure up a different set of emotions on the subject? My Grandmother gave her body to science, it’s always been a nice thought for me that someone out there has regained their sight because they now have her corneas, but again, it does feel like a different kettle of fish when you are talking about then keeping the rest of the body to dissect for study.
Apparently, I would most likely be rejected as a specimen because of my AS so I’m not even useful for being chopped up, the irony is, you need to be healthy but dead! So, what a wonderful, generous thing these individuals have done to help people like myself understand anatomy and movement to this degree. My studies have been advanced exponentially by this mode of learning, I really don’t think you can understand the function of the body’s movement functions without seeing for yourself.
It would be wonderful to know more about these people and how they felt before we see them in the lab, did they have back pain, headaches, frozen shoulder, stress or anxiety? Did they do sports and what sort of diet did they follow… does this all really show up in the deep tissues and structures as we age? Maybe one day this will be looked at in more detail and this detailed information will be available to help us truly understand the nature of pain. But for now, for what these generous people do #thankyou.
