Ethics in the teaching of human anatomy: from corpse to virtual reality

Abstract

Although the human anatomy teaching has gradually changed, the use of corpses or some of its parts is necessary for teaching, surrounded of respect according to activities of highly scientific-technical value for the educative influences that the teaching institutions of the national health system can exert. Also, the learning in the living organism, either directly or indirectly, demands a responsible attitude from teachers and students, either legally or ethically, because of its most immediate relation to the professional practice. The technologies of information and communication are an excellent didactic resource for the study of human anatomy, but it should have a place as a complementary alternative for the use of anatomical pieces, models and other resources as the learning with the living subject, because the excessive and exclusive use in the medical education can carry a negative ethical implication as the co adjuvant factor of becoming medically inhuman, at the edge of technical problems that the learning of this practice can carry out.