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HEAD USED
An uncle of mine donated his body to science a couple of years ago. Happily, he did so in Melbourne, and not Sydney:
The [University of NSW’s] school of anatomy had its licence to conduct anatomy classes revoked after an audit revealed remains were sexually interfered with, and piled together in coffins.
Police are investigating claims about the mistreatment of cadavers, including fondling of breasts and vaginas, and using a head for degrading purposes.
At the Uni of NSW, that purpose might be thinking.
UPDATE. “Hey, that’s not fair,” writes Nic. “Tim Lambert and Chris Sheil teach at the UNSW.”
UPDATE II. Premier Morris Iemma speaks to the dead: “The people who’ve made the donations deserve to know their remains have been treated appropriately and with respect and dignity.”
I’m not casting aspersions, but Fred Hilmer - CEO of Fairfax and now Vice Chancellor of a Uni where kiddies manhandle dead bodies. I think he’s been pigeonholed.
Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2007 02 05 at 10:27 PM • permalinkWhat sick bastards. BUT we no doubt (U.S.) have the same kind of sick bastards.
Friggin’ ghouls.
Ghoul
n.
1. One who delights in the revolting, morbid, or loathsome.
2. A grave robber.
3. An evil spirit or demon in Muslim folklore believed to plunder graves and feed on corpses.
[Arabic ġūl, from ġāla, to seize, snatch.]Take it from me, there’s nothing sexual about a room full of cadavers. The formalin smell alone takes some real getting used to. The bodies are grey, rubbery and moist in the most unpleasant way you can imagine.
That our cadaver in first year uni turned out to have silicon breast implants was of some interest to a then-17 year old. But sexual? Nooooooooo.
Did you hear about the sado-masochistic necrophiliac who was into bestiality?
He was caught flogging a dead horse.
Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2007 02 05 at 10:49 PM • permalinkSounds like a bad movie.
The Philip Addams Family?
Posted by Tex Lovera on 2007 02 05 at 11:00 PM • permalinkI thought it might have been something to do with this promotion- after all, isn’t funeral direction a trade?
Of note is that students aren’t to blame - it is a staff member and the supervisor who are in trouble.
Don’t worry too much, Nilknarf. The medical students I trained with, at least, were respectful at all times. We were certainly very grateful to, and impressed by, those generous enough to donate their bodies to the university. A fascinating privilege.
When I was working at the university, from my office window I could see the door to the medical school through which gift cadavers were taken (brought in a hearse, wrapped in a body bag and covered with a rug-looking thing, carried in on a gurney). Several of our student workers over the years were student nurses or pre-med students, and their tales of Gross Anatomy classes convinced us that nothing sexual or depraved ever took place there. In fact, we admired their fortitude.
Once their usefulness was over, most of the remains were not returned to the families. When you sign a cadaver donor card for your body, the university is responsible for it forever, unless specifically requested otherwise. The university maintains a cemetery in the woods on the campus, right next to the president’s residence. It’s beautifully landscaped, and the cremated remains are buried there in twice-yearly ceremonies, with their names on a marker in the brick-paved central garden.
I only ever heard of one student who was caught playing games with the cadavers, and that student was immediately expelled. He was allowed to keep all his credits, however, so that whatever university he had to transfer them to afterwards would receive a transcript marked “Terminated for academic dishonesty”, the catch-all for unethical behavior.
Last year I happened to be out the back of one of Melbourne’s crematoriums when a group of no-longer-useful anatomical cadavers from Monash Uni were being readied for cremation. Cremation at the best of times is an industrial process, but this rather more so. No coffins - an unfinished rectangular chipboard box. (Most coffins are chipboard anyway but have a paper-based faux-timber veneer).
Posted by walterplinge on 2007 02 06 at 12:49 AM • permalinkI’m leaving by body to science. Geez It’ll be sad if I get more sex dead than I do alive.
Posted by Pig Head Sucker on 2007 02 06 at 12:56 AM • permalinkMy brain is constantly used for degrading purposes, but never my whole head.
#15, I was thinking the same thing, but I was leaning more toward blaming it on global warming…
Posted by Rachel Corrie's Flatmate on 2007 02 06 at 01:16 AM • permalinkI think the funniest call is that by our hapless premier:
“They are appalling and deeply concerning allegations,” he said.
“The people who’ve made the donations deserve to know their remains have been treated appropriately and with respect and dignity.”
Like the people who made the donations are in a state to “know” anything ... i doubt they were even before the UNSW med students decided to invent an east coast version of
Takes the idea of “giving head” to a whole new level…
Posted by nofixedabode on 2007 02 06 at 01:42 AM • permalink#20- what about what the NSW Health Minister had to say?
At least they’re not stealing polar bear heads…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2007 02 06 at 01:52 AM • permalinkHabib has raised a valid concern.
Why does the Minister for Health appear to be a zombie? I wouldn’t trust him with my brain.
Posted by Evil Pundit on 2007 02 06 at 03:30 AM • permalinkUNSW have no doubt received expressions of interest from Marieke and Traceeeeee.
Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2007 02 06 at 03:54 AM • permalinkMeanwhile the university wonders why the Catholic Church won’t allow them to carry out stem cell research on land ceded by the Church to the uni.
This just confirms that my original idea of being cremated in a Viking pyre on top of logs of old growth trees is the right one. I just need to reemphasize to the family that this should happen after I’m dead.
Posted by wronwright on 2007 02 06 at 06:29 AM • permalinkWhere was Graeme Dunston while all this was going on?
Is there a Margo angle?
Posted by Mystery Meat on 2007 02 06 at 08:18 AM • permalinkHere’s my own personal heartwarming Midwestern coming-of-age remains-abuse story (one that that earned surprisingly little interest from the children’s book market):
As a student at the U of Iowa, one of my favorite recreations was ingesting large quantities of hallucinogenic drugs and going with friends to explore the vast underground tunnel system connecting the UI hospital / health complex buildings. One time we stumbled upon an unlocked med school lecture room, with an actual human skull, the cranium of which had been horizontally bisected and hinged to reveal the inner bone structure. Naturally, we swiped it, and used the poor departed fellow’s noggin as a pot stashbox for sophomore and junior year.
I’ve requested cremation upon my own demise, but in the interest of karma have stipulated that my my head be put aside for similarly degrading use.
If members of the NSW Cabinet were sprung enjoying a session or two of necrophilia with said cadavers, far from losing their seats in the comimg election, they’d probably increase their majorities. What else could you expect from a State that for years has believed it can have a sustainable economy on the basis of property taxes and the proceeds of the gay Mardis Gras?
Iowahawk. You ain’t foolin’ us. You just want a headful of free pot for eternity…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2007 02 06 at 10:53 AM • permalinkActually, there are some people in Computer Science at UNSW who have done really good cutting-edge research on operating systems, especially something called the L4 microkernel. Tim Lambert teaches graphics.
Posted by Chris Chittleborough on 2007 02 06 at 12:31 PM • permalinkAnd of course I was listening to a Foreigner CD while reading this post, and what song came up in the rotation…?
”...It’s high time to draw the line/
Put an end to this game before its too late/
Head Games! It’s you and me, baby-
Head Games! I can’t take it any more-
Head Games! I don’t want to play the-
Head Games!...”
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I always thought that it would be really cool to be a crash test cadaver.
No way I’d leave my body to uni students.