Yale: Med School Students Violated Policy By Posing With Cadavers

Yale University medical students, faculty, administrators, and others who support the Protect Our Patients movement demonstrate at Yale's Sterling Hall of Medicine in New Haven Connecticut Monday afternoon, Yale Medical School yearbooks of cadavers donated for study are a violation of Yale’s policy about the bodies’ use, according to Yale spokeswoman Karen Peart.



The Yale Daily News first reported that the photos, some accompanied by “lewd captions” were published in the 1990s and in 2011.

“Photography is strictly prohibited in the anatomy lab and any photos taken are done without approval and in violation of our policy,” Peart wrote in an email Wednesday to the Register. “It is expected that any student in the lab follows ethical standards of conduct so that appropriate respect is afforded to the individuals who donated their bodies to science.”

Yale accepts bodies from donors for study of anatomy and other medical fields both in training medical students and in research, according to the medical school’s web page about body donation. Once the cadavers are no longer needed, they are cremated and the remains are either returned to the family or buried in a section of Evergreen Cemetery, the website states.

William Stewart, section chief of the Anatomy Department and an associate professor of surgery, said signs prohibiting photos and videos in the anatomy lab have been posted for about five years, Peart said.

According to the “Yale Human Anatomy Laboratory Standards of Conduct,” which was sent to the Register, “Individuals from all walks of life have donated their bodies to support education and research. We are obligated to treat each of their gifts with the reverence and respect they deserve.”

Anyone involved with the donated bodies must sign the conduct statement, which includes the statement, “I will not take photographs or make any videos unless authorized by the laboratory director” and “I understand that failure to adhere to the principles may result in loss of access to the lab.”

Stewart told the student newspaper he would not have allowed the photos if he knew about them. The story republished one photo of six students around a cadaver, which has been blurred in the photo.

Medical school Dean Dr. Robert Alpern wrote in an email to the News, “It is expected that any student in the lab follows ethical standards of conduct so that appropriate respect is afforded to the individuals who donated their bodies to science.”

Professor Lawrence Rizzolo, director of medical studies at Yale, told the Yale Daily News he “strenuously disapproved” of the photos. “They violate the ethical norms of our profession that we wish to instill in our students,” he wrote in an email.

The Register has requested comment from Alpern, Stewart and Rizzolo.

Peart said a non-Yale-affiliated person lost laboratory privileges about two years ago for violating the photo policy.

The Yale Daily News said most medical school yearbook photos show students during their first-year anatomy lab dissecting cadavers without showing the bodies.

In February 2018, Dr. Flavio Uribe, a dental professor at UConn Health and at the time a visiting professor at Yale, was depicted in a photo with several dental school students and two severed heads. The photo was taken during a symposium at the Yale School of Medicine about dental deformities. It was unclear whether the photo was posted or published anywhere.

Uribe told the Associated Press that someone took the photo while he was instructing students how to insert screws into the heads. “Somebody unfortunately took a photo,” Uribe said in the story. “It was so quick. I wasn’t sure of the surroundings or scenery at that point.”

A spokesman for the University of Connecticut said the university took “appropriate internal steps,” according to a Washington Post story, but Uribe said he hadn’t been disciplined.

In the 2018 story, Yale Press Secretary Thomas Conroy said Yale is working on increasing its oversight procedures concerning cadavers and said the laboratory had signs posted at its entrances prohibiting photography.

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