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RESPECT FOR CADAVERS
A national bioethical framework is needed for body donation
Some 250 years after his body was taken, it’s time to accord Charles Byrne the respectful burial he deserves
Why not return to the ancient practice of burying the dead instead of cremating them?
Body used for tissue samples or organs
A policy of cremation or burial has become a major political and ethical dispute
Rising cost of burials could be responsible
Some areas of anatomy still carry the taint of Nazi atrocities.
China’s Health Ministry is taking the gruesome story of aborted babies ground into powder and used as aphrodisiacs seriously enough to launch an official investigation. SBS, one of the three major national television networks in South Korea, broadcast a documentary earlier this month about capsules from China containing dead baby flesh.
Research papers based on body parts taken from hundreds of dead children without their parents’ consent were “fundamentally flawed,” according to a January 2001 report. However, over a decade later, Nature News reports that only one of those papers has been removed from the scientific record. The lack of action – even in what seems to be a clear-cut case – could point to reluctance by institutions and journals in retracting papers when the authors stand by the results.
Challenging assumptions
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