Teen's autopsy witnessed by fellow students

[Gumleaf]

14:00 AEST Tue Dec 9 2008
By ninemsn staff


A medical examiner's office in the US has cancelled school tours after a group of students witnessed the autopsy of a 14-year-old girl from their neighbourhood.

Officials from the office in Oakland County, Michigan, decided to call off the tours after they were contacted by the girl's distraught parents, who had heard about the tour.

Mike Zehnder, the county's director of public services, told the Detroit News it had been "a poor decision" to let the tour go on, but said the medical examiner had no legal obligation to contact the girl's parents or keep the autopsy private.

During the tour, students watched the dissection of the body from a sealed-off viewing platform.

The teacher chaperoning the tour of senior high school students had been told the autopsy would be of a local student, who had committed suicide, but still gave the go ahead.

"She said it was fine," the Detroit News quoted Bob Gerd, from the medical examiner's office, as saying.

"I told the students that if any of them knew this girl, they should not go back there."

It is believed none of the students knew the dead girl, but one did know the girl's brother.

A spokeswoman for the local school district, Rhonda Lessel, said the teacher had talked to her class beforehand and asked if the group wanted to continue

"I believe the teacher did what she thought was in the best interest of the students," Ms Lessel told the Detroit News.

The teacher was not disciplined.

Watching an autopsy — where the body is dissected, usually opening chest and skull to determine cause of death — is a popular excursions for biology students in the US, but many parts of country have now banned the school tours.

[Whisper]

Thats fucking sick
first of all high school students should be nowhere near a human autopsy everything they need to know is in diagrams unless your a uni student practicing in the medical field ya negative
NEVER MIND a girl from there area

the teacher should be fired

The coroner should face a steep reprimand

[Kaleidoscope Eyes]

Sheesh. The only time I've ever heard of students witnessing an autopsy or dissection firsthand is in college-level anatomy and physiology courses. I also want to know why they had to use that girl. Don't they typically use someone who has donated their body to science, not just some random corpse they happen to have in the freezer? I know the teacher asked the students, so I'm not going to say how traumatized they must be--they said they wanted to see. But doesn't the examiner have guidelines about who can be PUBLICLY autopsied? Our culture is pretty taboo about dead bodies. When there is an open-casket funeral, the body is dressed nicely, covered in make-up to create a natural appearance and to cover any visible wounds. That's not because we're squeamish, it's out of respect for the dead and wanting them to be remembered as they were in life. My god, my sister didn't need an autopsy but if she had and it was in front of a high school class... you'd better believe my family would be suing. The girl was a minor, her parents are still in charge of what happens to her body after death. It's not like she had a will saying that sort of thing was ok.

...People just don't think anymore, do they?

[Requin]

Oh dear. What's wrong with people in this world???

That's sick, and makes no sense at all. Honestly I can't see how someone thought that was a good idea, why would you want to see an autopsy anyway?

[Kaleidoscope Eyes]

Well, in the anatomy and physiology courses at my college, it is done to give a greater understanding of the human body. The students get to use microscopes to study the different types of tissue (actually looking at the tissue is better than having a slide of some old slice of muscle, I think). And, it shows dimension and detail that a diagram can't. The actual organs don't always look 100% like a textbook diagram, so especially if you're going into medicine it's really helpful to see it all yourself. Plus, the course description clearly states something along the lines of "Includes demonstrations with a cadaver", or whatnot. You know what you're getting in to.

I don't see the point in high school though. Especially since biology is typically mandatory. Most high schools don't give you a choice with your core subjects, except in the instances where the AP course is different. For example, my old high school. AP history in sophomore year was European history. Everyone else did world history. They got to cover more areas, but we got to go farther in depth with Europe. Everything else is the same standards though, just in detail and you're expected to pick it up faster. Point is, no matter your academic level, you take English, you take the appropriate math course, and then history and science are often the same thing for the whole grade level. Your only choice is honors/AP or college prep. So, these kids may not want to pursue biology. Many of them are taking it so they can get their science credits and graduate, it's a required course. There really is no need to see an autopsy. Stick with dissecting frogs and pig hearts. And squid, I dissected a squid.

[Requin]

Yeah that's fine. It's the fact that their only 14 and it was done on another school girl. Even if none of them new her.

[Donkey]

Guhhh... ughhhh... urrrgghhhhhhhhhhh. Yes and that concludes today's science lesson. :)

[Bobby]

I would never want to watch this, and I find it unethical.

[Donkey]

It is a pretty disgusting story... disturbing. Atleast I have sane teachers :)