Traditions holding science back with few bodies

Local medical institutions called on the public to dismiss traditional mentalities, urging more people to donate their bodies to research, yesterday, on Body Donation Day, while addressing the city's shortage of bodies, which are needed to advance medical science.

Some 31,327 people in the city have registered to donate their organs or bodies to medical science, 1,698 of whom signed up for the cause last year, according to Shanghai Red Cross, which supervises the practice in the city.

But still the selfless actions are not enough to meet the city's medical science needs, which demand at least 200 to 300 bodies per year, said Zhu Keming, director of Fudan University's body donation center, which is in charge of collecting the city's bodies that are donated to medical science.

"We received 165 bodies for the city last year, but that wasn't enough to meet the needs of the education and research work that is carried out by local medical schools and institutions," he told the Global Times yesterday.

Though less so these days, Chinese traditions are still impeding the advancement of medical science in the way of body donations, said Zhu.

"Many family members are reluctant to donate the bodies of their loved ones since traditional burial is important to Chinese burial practices," said Zhu.

Even families that agree to donate - a blessing required by Chinese law even if an individual has registered to give their body to science - tend to want an elaborate burial ceremony before the body is handed over, which is difficult since corpses need to be preserved quickly, he added.

According to Tang Deyan, an anatomy professor at Fudan University, a shortage of donated bodies leaves the city's medical minds with fewer opportunities to learn, "ultimately lowering the chances of advancing modern science."

A pioneer in the field, the city began the nation's first body donation program in 1982. In the last decade, some 6,090 people have donated their bodies to the cause. Their contributions to medical science are marked by the city every March 1, and were yesterday remembered by medical communities and families at Qingpu district's Fushou Yuan cemetery, where a special monument has been built for them.

By Miranda Shek