Since its creation in 1950, the willed body program has offered
medical students the opportunity to receive hands-on experience in
understanding the human body before entering careers as operating
surgeons and doctors.
UCLA medical students continue to gain meaningful experience
from their “gross anatomy” classes despite the
suspension of the willed body program last March.
The UCLA Willed Body Program was a crucial component of
education and research at the David Geffen School of Medicine, as
thousands of donors willed their bodies to the program after death.
Though the one-year anniversary of the arrest of Henry Reid, former
director of the UCLA Willed Body Program, has come and gone, the
program remains under the microscope as systemized guidelines are
implemented to ensure the program runs in a more dignified
manner.
Reid was arrested in March 2004 for the selling of body parts
and the subsequent media scrutiny led to the suspension of the
program and a slew of lawsuits.
During a meeting immediately after the incident, Chancellor
Albert Carnesale said the cadavers being used in the education of
UCLA medical students would be available for the remainder of the
2003-2004 school year. However, further suspension into the
2004-2005 academic year made it necessary for the university to
make arrangements for more bodies.
Though research that utilizes cadavers may be affected by the
lack of bodies, UCLA medical students say the quality of their
education was not affected ““ and UCLA officials agree.
“The Medical Center obtained court permission to utilize some
of the program’s remaining inventory (acquired before it was
voluntarily shut down) and has supplemented those materials with
specimens from outside sources,” said Roxanne Moster,
director of UCLA Health Sciences Media Relations. “Outside
sources” include nearby UC schools, such as UC Irvine.
A somewhat limited amount of bodies has affected education
minimally, medical students say. Though five students now work with
one cadaver, it can still be done, and the only real change has
been the increase in supervision of the courses, students say.
“They tell us it is important to be respectful in light of
the scandal,” said Raffi Lefkowitz, a first-year medical
student. “Authorities have the right to come in at any point
to oversee the dissections. One came in during my final.”
For the thousands of men and women that enroll in medical
schools throughout the United States, the study of the human body
without the hands-on aspect is unimaginable. “You can learn a
lot from reading but learning visually puts it all together.”
Lefkowitz said. “When you’re working on a body, you
feel it is all the more real.”
The willed body program has had a flourishing history with roots
intertwined with the founding of the UCLA Medical School. According
to the UCLA Willed Body Program Web site, Dr. Horace Magoun, first
chair of anatomy for UCLA School of Medicine, thought of the idea
for a willed body program in 1950, the same year the school was
created. After appealing to the California Legislature with his
plan, California enacted the Anatomical Gift Act which authorized
citizens wishing to give their bodies after death to education to
will the body to medical institutions.
UCLA was the first medical school to begin accepting bodies, and
by 1969 many other states enacted similar laws to allow people to
make these “anatomical gifts.” In the 1970s, the use of
cadavers for study had become an essential part of the medical
school curriculum. Contribution to the program was so popular that
there were 15,000 applications on file at any time and UCLA had to
limit the number of bodies it could accept, according to a 1976
Daily Bruin article. Dr. David Maxwell, director of the willed
bodies program in 1976, said in the article that donated bodies
were the only legitimate way for future doctors to learn
anatomy.
“There is no substitute,” he said.