O USO DE CADÁVERES HUMANOS COMO INSTRUMENTO NA CONSTRUÇÃO DE CONHECIMENTO A PARTIR DE UMA VISÃO BIOÉTICA

Abstract

Biological sciences progress has occured through the improvement of scientific techniques which has caused great advance concerning researches and teaching issues. Man has become part of experiments and his corpse got great importance among the living people, which has caused society to question in the social, moral, law, religious and medical fields, mainly regarding the use of human body or part of it in such experiments. Human Anatomy is the science which studies the human body structures and for many centuries has been using corpses as a teaching material. Dealing with death in Anatomy classes many times causes fear, dogmas, and taboos. In the past, the anatomists job was limited by the church rules, today, this study is threatened by legal, religious, and moral problems, and the lack of society awareness about the importance of donating corpses for research and studying purposes. In the face of the techical scientific discoveries in many areas, Bioethics appears rising new matters related to ethical values, concerning people´s millennial beliefs, in human sciences related to human life and death, political community, and the relationship between man and nature. This paper is concerned about showing and discussing, through a historical synthesis, the importance of corpses in building knowledge, in research and teaching, noting scientific, religious, cultural, and legal aspects which regulate the scientific progress despite all technological development. For such, we have applied 739 questionaries to both students and teachers from health field courses in the various private universities located in Anápolis and Goiânia. The results shown by the research support the assumption that both students and teachers are in favor of using human corpes for teaching and research purposes, although they do not know well the legislation regulating the use of bodies from both indigent people and those who died but had not been seeked by their respective families. This study shows the need of programs to explain and make the population aware of what spontaneous corpse donation is concerned and its importance to studies and research as well as reeducational programs or modification of those values unfit to the effective exercise of health-related professions. The starting point is in the Anatomy teaching, since the human corpse makes us rethink about human values, today due to technological advance, so much forgotten.