Eastern adds new cadaver

This archived article was written by: Karli Morris

The USU Eastern Biology Department added a new cadaver. In December 2011, Dr. Tyson Chappell drove to the University of Utah School of Medicine Body Donor Program to pick her up. The cadaver is a woman who died at 94.The Biology Department will house and take of her for three years.
The department’s other cadaver is a male and has been on campus for three years. After the summer 2012 semester, the male body will be returned to the University of Utah and the biology department will get another cadaver. Eastern will then have “two fairly new dead people,” said Chappell. From here on out, Eastern will always have two cadavers for students to study. Recently a new cadaver lab was approved and built, allowing room for two cadaver tables.
The cadavers are mostly used for anatomy classes, but physiology and biology 1500 also get to go into the lab and take a look. They are mostly used to learn about muscles, but the brain is looked at during neuroscience chapters and general organs are studied to learn their structures and functions.
Before the human cadavers, the biology department used cats and pigs to study their anatomy, however, pigs are still dissected during the class.
In order to be part of the cadaver donor program, one has to fill out special paperwork explaining that they would like to donate their body to science when they die. Spouses can also choose to donate the body of a spouse after they have died.
When medical studies are complete, the body will be cremated (at no charge to the family) and, either, returned to the family or placed in a common repository at the Salt Lake City Cemetery.
According to Chappell, the biology department of USU Eastern is excited to have a new cadaver and the learning opportunities that come with it.