Penn State College of Medicine follows strict rules about cadavers

Key cards are needed to enter the area where cadavers are dissected and kept at Penn State College of Medicine. Cell phones arent allowed.

A few years ago, a student at one New York medical school posted a photo on Facebook showing a student giving a thumbs up while posing with a cadaver, and a student at another posted a photo involving a brain.

At the Derry Twp.-based medical school, no such ethical violations have occurred, according to Michelle Lazarus, an anatomy instructor.

Lazarus is also the intermediary between the school and the Humanity Gifts Registry, which oversees bodies donated for medical research in Pennsylvania.

Lazarus says the school has long taken a strong ethical approach to use of cadavers.

For example, through a collaboration with the humanities department, first-year medical students probe their feelings about the cadavers in writing assignments. They also are responsible for conducting a public memorial service following completion of their work on cadavers.

Lazarus says, We tell them all the time this is your first patient.

We feel really grateful to people who donate, and to their families. Its really important to us. We dont just think of it as a lab, says Michelle Matzko, a first-year medical student from Bloomsburg.

Contrary to rumor, theres no financial payment available for donating a body to science.

Unlike some states, Pennsylvania has no state funding toward supporting the supply of medical cadavers.

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Penn State College of Medicine follows strict rules about cadavers