@article{ART003390332},
author={Rhyu Im Joo},
title={Seeing the Person on the Dissection Table: James Bridie’s The Anatomist and the Ethics of Anatomy Education},
journal={Anatomy & Biological Anthropology},
issn={2671-5651},
year={2026},
volume={39},
number={3},
pages={307-314},
doi={10.11637/aba.2026.39.3.307}
TY - JOUR
AU - Rhyu Im Joo
TI - Seeing the Person on the Dissection Table: James Bridie’s The Anatomist and the Ethics of Anatomy Education
JO - Anatomy & Biological Anthropology
PY - 2026
VL - 39
IS - 3
PB - 대한체질인류학회
SP - 307
EP - 314
SN - 2671-5651
AB - recognizes that an anonymous body brought into Robert Knox’s dissection room is Mary Paterson, a woman who had briefly comforted him only hours earlier. The body itself has not changed; Walter’s way of seeing has. What had appeared to be an anonymous specimen is suddenly reconnected with a name, a face, and a human life. Knox, by contrast, remains committed to anatomical truth and his duty to teach while declining to ask where the bodies used for his teaching come from. The historical transition from executed, unclaimed, stolen, and illicitly obtained bodies to voluntary body donation has fundamentally transformed the ethical foundations of anatomy education. Yet repeated dissection, identification of structures, and assessment may still encourage students and teachers to experience a donated body primarily as an object of learning. Professional detachment is necessary for anatomical study, but it should not result in losing sight of the donor as a person. Memorial ceremonies and donor-as-teacher programs offer important ways of sustaining this recognition, but respect for donor personhood should not be confined to isolated rituals. Anatomy curricula can revisit the meaning of donation before, during, and after dissection through historical and ethical orientation, brief opportunities for reflection, memorial practices, and reflective writing. Theater and literature, including The Anatomist, can further provide a space for discussing professional detachment, objectification, responsibility for the source of bodies, and respect for donor anonymity. The aim is not to prescribe a uniform emotional response to dissection, but to sustain an ethical way of seeing. Those who look most closely at the human body must not lose sight of the person whose decision made such learning possible.
KW - Anatomy education;Body donation;Cadaveric dissection;Medical humanities;Personhood;The Anatomist
DO - 10.11637/aba.2026.39.3.307
ER -
Rhyu Im Joo. (2026). Seeing the Person on the Dissection Table: James Bridie’s The Anatomist and the Ethics of Anatomy Education. Anatomy & Biological Anthropology, 39(3), 307-314.
Rhyu Im Joo. 2026, "Seeing the Person on the Dissection Table: James Bridie’s The Anatomist and the Ethics of Anatomy Education", Anatomy & Biological Anthropology, vol.39, no.3 pp.307-314. Available from: doi:10.11637/aba.2026.39.3.307
Rhyu Im Joo "Seeing the Person on the Dissection Table: James Bridie’s The Anatomist and the Ethics of Anatomy Education" Anatomy & Biological Anthropology 39.3 pp.307-314 (2026) : 307.
Rhyu Im Joo. Seeing the Person on the Dissection Table: James Bridie’s The Anatomist and the Ethics of Anatomy Education. 2026; 39(3), 307-314. Available from: doi:10.11637/aba.2026.39.3.307
Rhyu Im Joo. "Seeing the Person on the Dissection Table: James Bridie’s The Anatomist and the Ethics of Anatomy Education" Anatomy & Biological Anthropology 39, no.3 (2026) : 307-314.doi: 10.11637/aba.2026.39.3.307
Rhyu Im Joo. Seeing the Person on the Dissection Table: James Bridie’s The Anatomist and the Ethics of Anatomy Education. Anatomy & Biological Anthropology, 39(3), 307-314. doi: 10.11637/aba.2026.39.3.307
Rhyu Im Joo. Seeing the Person on the Dissection Table: James Bridie’s The Anatomist and the Ethics of Anatomy Education. Anatomy & Biological Anthropology. 2026; 39(3) 307-314. doi: 10.11637/aba.2026.39.3.307
Rhyu Im Joo. Seeing the Person on the Dissection Table: James Bridie’s The Anatomist and the Ethics of Anatomy Education. 2026; 39(3), 307-314. Available from: doi:10.11637/aba.2026.39.3.307
Rhyu Im Joo. "Seeing the Person on the Dissection Table: James Bridie’s The Anatomist and the Ethics of Anatomy Education" Anatomy & Biological Anthropology 39, no.3 (2026) : 307-314.doi: 10.11637/aba.2026.39.3.307
