UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, September 21, 1994
7A
Anatomy students not bothered by cadavers
By Jennifer Freund Kansan staff writer
The sickly-sweet smell of formaldehyde and phenol permeated the air yesterday as students in anatomy lab scraped fat from the breast of a woman in order to examine a tumor.
Five weeks into the semester, students in teaching assistant Jeff Parmelee's Human Anatomy Disssection Laboratory seemed at ease sliding skin away from dead bodies. But they were not all as enthusiastic on the first day of class.
"The first time I did it, I kept having flash-backs of this leg that I dissected." Matthew Foster, Delia senior, said. "The first day of class I was just thinking that there would be an introduction and a lecture on what we would be doing. But the first day we started cutting. I had never seen a dead body before."
While some students were disgusted by the sight of dead bodies, most said that they found the class to be a good learning experience.
Foster, who is majoring in nursing and required to take the class, said he enjoyed dissection so much that this was his second time taking the lab.
"I took it last spring," he said. "I
wanted to come back and re-learn everything. I really like the hands-on experience."
Parmelae, biology graduate, who has been teaching the anatomy dissection lab for four years, said he was grateful to have cadavers for his students to work on.
"It's nice to have cadavers," he said. "Some universities have to use plastic models."
Parmalee's anatomy class receives their cadavers from the KU Medical Center.
He said the quality of bodies was generally good, but that KU medical students and dental students got first dibs. Some smaller schools, like Emporia University got what was left over after the University of Kansas had finished selecting their cadavers.
The class, which meets Tuesdays and Thursdays, uses three bodies the entire semester.
After the students are through dissecting the bodies, Parmelle helps load them in a pick-up truck to haul them to the KU Medical Center for cremation.
A person must specifically ask to donate their body to science.
people might find dissection unpleasant, he enjoyed teaching the class.
Parmelee said even though some
"I love teaching this class instead of an introductory biology course," he said. "The students are really interested in the class. No one's taking this to satisfy a science requirement."
Parmelee said most of the students in his class were nursing or physical therapy majors.
Anne Maslia, Canton, Ohio, graduate student, said human dissection was so fascinating that she started teaching an observation anatomy lab.
"It's just really neat," she said. "I want to teach anatomy at a university level. I am interested in morphology. Dissecting bodies never bothered me."
But Maslia said that her students' first reactions to the cadavers were similar to the ones in Parmelee's class.
"Now the students just see the bodies like they're in a book," she said. "At first, though, you could see their hesitation."
While Parmalee's class actually cuts the bodies, Maslia's class only observes what his class has done.
"My students learn the structure."
she said. "It's nice and clean."
Maslia said that she wanted to donate her body to science if her organs could not be used for transplant.
"Iwould absolutely donate my body to science," she said. "Most people think that it's really strange. I would give my organs to someone who is alive but if no one could use them, I would donate my whole body to science."
Foster said that while he enjoyed dissecting bodies, he would never donate his body to science, or at least not for dissection.
"There's no way I would do it after I saw what we do to them," he said.
While students and faculty are split on the decision to donate their bodies to science, all agree that the stench of formaldehyde and phenol are patently unpleasant.
"I have to go home and take a shower," Parmelee said. "I hear from some students that people don't want to sit with them if they have a class after this one."
Foster said he found the smell unpleasant, but he said sarcastically, "I'm thinking of bottling the scent and selling it."
EL HODIRI: Professor to help Russian Parliament
Continued from Page 1A.
sia for each of the next three to five years.
"I feel a tenderness for the Russian people, and I think they need to hear an alternative American voice," he said. "I am boiling mad about the advice Russians have been given by traditional American economists because I think it has been irresponsible."
Many traditional economists have pushed Russia to make monumental changes too quickly, El-Hodiri said. The results have devastated many Russians.
"Things have worsened dramatically for a lot of Russians since the fall of communism," he said. "Russian people are bright and sincere, but they are not used to this system."
The goal should not be to duplicate the U.S. free-market economy, El-
Hodiri said. Instead, Russians should modify American capitalism so that it fits their culture.
n the end, their system should be
In the end, the similar to ours, but it must fit their history and their beliefs," he said. "It has to be their own."
E-Lhodir said an important obstacle was teaching Russians the concept of individual thinking.
"Some Russians are in a stage of denial and think that this is an economic stage that will pass," he
realize that the people in the streets have minds of their own and can make their own decisions."
To pronara for the trin. El Udidis
said. "Russians have always had a cooperative mentality, and we need to make our Russian counterparts
Mohamed El-Hodiril Professor of economics
the trip. El-Hodri has been fine-tuning his Russian by studying with a tutor three hours a week.
"I spent a year in Russia in 1958, and I've always maintained enough Russian to get along," he said. "But I admit I've forgotten some of it."
Studies, said El-Hodiri's previous experience in Russia would serve him well.
Leslie Dienes,
professor of
Russian and
East European
"He has spent time in Russia, and he grew up in Egypt," Dienes said. "Both of these things make him better suited to help the Russians."
El-Hodiri, who spent the first 21 years of his life in Egypt, witnessed Egypt's transition from a free-market to a socialist economy in 1960.
"Because of his experience in Egypt, he knows the problems associated with the developmental side of economics," Dienes said. "I think he can offer the Russians very sober, not radical, advice."
"Russians have become very suspicious of advice from Americans, but I think they are more likely to listen to Mohamed," Dienes said. "Russia's problems are formidable, but I think Mohamed can help. I just wish he could have gone three years ago."
Dienes said Russians probably would trust El-Hodiri more than traditional American economists.
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