Medical faculties rely on cadaver imports amid severe shortage

İZMİR

Türkiye’s medical education system is facing a severe shortage of cadavers, essential tools for teaching anatomy and developing hands-on skills.

The scarcity of body donations has forced many medical faculties to rely on imported cadavers, impacting the quality of training for future doctors.

“Cadavers should be the first patient of any medical student,” emphasized Servet Çelik, the deputy director of Ege University’s Faculty of Medicine. “When cadavers are unavailable, we have no choice but to import them,” he said, underscoring the urgency of the problem.

Anatomy is considered one of the most critical components of medical education, yet the shortage of cadavers means that students could graduate without gaining adequate experience.

According to Çelik, cadavers provide invaluable practice for students to develop manual skills essential for real-world medical practice. However, donation rates remain low across the country, with even universities in major cities, such as the western province of İzmir, receiving only five to six donations per year.

“In recent years, donations have increased slightly, but they are far from meeting the needs of medical schools,” Çelik said. He explained that for Ege University alone, an optimal teaching standard would require 40 cadavers annually to accommodate its 400 first-year students.

In the absence of cadavers, training is reduced to a “museum format,” according to Çelik.

“Encountering a cadaver not only prepares students psychologically for the realities of medicine but also allows them to observe realistic tissue and practice essential techniques.”

Currently, only 15 to 20 students per year have the opportunity to examine specific regions on a cadaver, he said.

The shortage has led Turkish universities to consider importing cadavers, a costly endeavor.

“While we believe putting a price on a human body is morally complex, this necessity arises from the lack of donations,” Çelik added.