Too few cadavers for medical student masses

The switch from seven years of secondary education to six is giving the city's university administrators a headache - and aggravating what is already a big problem for anatomy professors: where to find enough bodies for dissection classes.

The University of Hong Kong medical faculty has renewed its appeal for people to pledge their bodies to help teaching and research and this academic year will, for the first time, hold a ceremony honouring donors before the start of dissection lessons.

Dr George Tipoe, associate professor of anatomy, said the faculty needed 20 to 23 human bodies for dissection every year (six to seven medical students share one body) but demand for bodies would double in the 2012 and 2013 academic years.

In 2012, universities will take in students graduating from Form Six under the new curriculum and Form Seven under the old curriculum, and expect their annual intake to double. Since students are trained in dissection in the first two years of their studies, twice as many bodies as usual will be needed during that period.

Tipoe said the faculty receives on average only one donor body every two years. The others it uses are unclaimed ones sent by the authorities. 'We have no control of the number of unclaimed bodies coming in,' he said. 'We have to appeal to the public for donations so we can have a more predictable number each year.'

Bodies used in class are returned for cremation.