Makerere decries scarcity of dead bodies for student training; Ugandans urged to donate

Makerere University is grappling with a shortage of human bodies used to train medical students.

The university, through  its Department of Anatomy at the College of Health Sciences, is calling for Ugandans to consider donating their bodies to science after death.

Prof. Erisa Mwaka, the Dean of the College of Health Sciences, said anatomy remains one of the most important courses for medical and other health science students.

The college, he said, continues to rely largely on unclaimed bodies from public hospitals for anatomy lessons, but the numbers are no longer sufficient to meet training needs.

“Ours is a foundational course on anatomy. Majorly we teach this course using human remains. But over the years, much as the population is increasing, there is a scarcity of dead bodies,” he said.

He explained that the university is exploring alternatives already common in developed countries, where people voluntarily donate their bodies for medical education and research before death.

“For example, you can write in your will that, ‘when I pass on, I donate my body for medical education.’ If you write that in your will, your family hands your body to our department of anatomy for learning,” Mwaka said.

“After they have used the body for learning, usually we hand the bones back to the family for burial,” he said.

Human body donation programmes are widely used in countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Australia. 

In many medical schools, individuals register as donors while still alive and sign consent forms witnessed by family members or legal representatives. After death, the body is transferred to the medical institution for teaching and research purposes.

Medical schools use donated bodies to teach anatomy, train surgeons and test new medical procedures before they are performed on patients. 

Experts say studying real human bodies gives students a deeper understanding of anatomy than computer simulations alone.

The length of time a donated body remains with a university varies. 

Some institutions use bodies for several months, while others retain them for up to three years before cremation or returning the remains to families according to the donor's wishes.

In the United Kingdom, body donation is regulated under the Human Tissue Act. 

Potential donors must give written consent before death and are encouraged to discuss their wishes with relatives. 

Similar systems exist in many American universities, where donors complete registration forms and inform family members in advance.