scholarly journals A Pound of Flesh: Human Remains, Ethics and Museums in Tertiary Education

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Paulette Milnes

<p>The collection and display of human remains has long been accepted within many cultures and religions. However, in contemporary Western society the practice has become contentious, and acquisition by museums has all but ceased. Among academic and museum communities, debate and discussion on the problem have been centred almost entirely on indigenous repatriation claims and Body Worlds exhibitions, to the exclusion of other aspects of what is in fact a much broader issue. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the question of whether human remains can ever justifiably be collected and held by museums. The focus of the study is the situation of health science disciplinary museums within tertiary education, with specific and detailed reference to the W.D. Trotter Anatomy Museum and the Drennan Pathology Museum at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.  Three interconnected aspects of the topic are considered in order to answer the primary question. The first is an examination of the codes of ethics and professional practice that govern the treatment of human remains; the second reviews the justifications commonly given for the use of human remains; and the third aspect considers the role museums play in tertiary education. Documentary sources, exhibitions and interviews were analysed to address these issues and corroborate evidence. Examined together, these three areas of investigation bring a fresh focus on whether the acquisition and retention of human remains can be justified, at least within certain parameters.  This study concludes that in the particular educational context of the health science teaching museum there is a strong justification for continued acquisition and display, albeit in a highly regulated and clearly defined ethical environment, of human remains. A key outcome of the research is that the most important consideration across all three areas of investigation, and for all groups working with human remains, was the concept of respect. Definitions and expressions of respect differed depending on context and professional boundaries, but within specific ethical parameters it is possible to determine that the collection and retention of human remains can be justified.</p>

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Paulette Milnes

<p>The collection and display of human remains has long been accepted within many cultures and religions. However, in contemporary Western society the practice has become contentious, and acquisition by museums has all but ceased. Among academic and museum communities, debate and discussion on the problem have been centred almost entirely on indigenous repatriation claims and Body Worlds exhibitions, to the exclusion of other aspects of what is in fact a much broader issue. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the question of whether human remains can ever justifiably be collected and held by museums. The focus of the study is the situation of health science disciplinary museums within tertiary education, with specific and detailed reference to the W.D. Trotter Anatomy Museum and the Drennan Pathology Museum at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.  Three interconnected aspects of the topic are considered in order to answer the primary question. The first is an examination of the codes of ethics and professional practice that govern the treatment of human remains; the second reviews the justifications commonly given for the use of human remains; and the third aspect considers the role museums play in tertiary education. Documentary sources, exhibitions and interviews were analysed to address these issues and corroborate evidence. Examined together, these three areas of investigation bring a fresh focus on whether the acquisition and retention of human remains can be justified, at least within certain parameters.  This study concludes that in the particular educational context of the health science teaching museum there is a strong justification for continued acquisition and display, albeit in a highly regulated and clearly defined ethical environment, of human remains. A key outcome of the research is that the most important consideration across all three areas of investigation, and for all groups working with human remains, was the concept of respect. Definitions and expressions of respect differed depending on context and professional boundaries, but within specific ethical parameters it is possible to determine that the collection and retention of human remains can be justified.</p>


1989 ◽  
Vol 28 (04) ◽  
pp. 360-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. McArthur ◽  
J. Bolles ◽  
J. Fine ◽  
P. Kidd ◽  
M. Bessis

Abstract:Advances in electronic image recording and computer technologyhave resulted in a remarkable increase in the power and flexibility of interactive computer-video teaching systems. The University of Washington Health Science Videodisc Development Group first demonstrated a laser videodisc controlled by a remote central computer in 1980. Even this rudimentary unit highlighted basic medical informatics principles including: rapid accessibility; a “generic” or multi-purposed format; ease of computer control; and large collections of valid, rigorously reviewed images. Advances in medical informatics have led to the development of the following previously undescribed series of teaching units:1. The hypertext programs Hypercard, Linkway, and Guide have been used with videodiscs to develop easy-to-use instructional and reference materials. These materials demonstrate the ease with which a computer-naive instructor may develop new programs and the advantage that the intuitive nature of these programs brings to student users.2. Patient simulations using single and double screens plus pre-defined knowledge structures;3. Interactive single topic tutorials using preset knowledge structures;4. A key-word-based disc searching system;5. Electronic video microscopy;6. A series of programs developed independently by health science faculty who have purchased multi-purpose videodiscs that demonstrate the flexibility of the multi-purpose or “generic”: collection concept.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fariha Azalea

University is relatively considered a stressful moment in the life of students due to numerous academic workloads and academic activities. The situation is further aggravated by the fact that some university students are in emerging adulthood, a developmental period which is psychologically fraught with uncertainty, instability and identity issues among others. Added to these, the context of most universities like Cameroon which is marred with political, economic and social turbulence common to other developing societies in the sub Saharan region makes life unbearable. Looking at the challenges that confront tertiary education students in the third decade of life, increases possibilities of fears that they will founder thus narrowing the route to a blossomed transition into adulthood and through the university from home into the world of work. However, observations reveal that some have remained hopeful as they continuously believe in themselves and their worth. As such, they have resiliently shrugged off the vast burden placed on them by the adult society as they struggle intentionally with continuous efforts to succeed. Being hopeful and self-efficacy beliefs are observed to be some of the effective drivers that pull emerging adults through the storms of university transition thus facilitating positive development into subsequent life stages. Unfortunately just a paucity of literature albeit theoretically actually narrates via scholarly corridors the monumental successes recorded by students as they sail flourishingly through university in the midst of storms an in the third decade of life. This paper examines and addresses the foregoing through the lenses of some theories.


Labyrinth ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 91-105
Author(s):  
Gianluca Chiadini

The reception of the notions of trace, arkhé, and document in the work of Alain Nadaud This paper intends to point out the philosophical features in the novels of the French writer Alain Nadaud and their links with the philosophical theory concerning the concepts of trace, arkhé and document elaborated by Jacques Derrida in the second half of the XX century. This subject, related to the contemporary socio-historical concept of post-truth, reveals the originality and the up-to-date tendency in the novels of Alain Nadaud. This paper uncovers new important aspects of his work by proposing a solid philosophical interpretation of its main theoretical principles. In particular, it uncovers the philosophical reasons at the origin of his writing, which is based on the historical research method. Furthermore, it reveals the sense of dystopia of his novels and relates it with the most recent socio-philosophical analysis of contemporary western society.


2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominique A. Tobbell

The 1950s and 1960s were decades of change for the American nursing profession. A new generation of nurse educators sought to create greater professional autonomy for the nurse by introducing new models of education that emphasized science-based learning over technical skills and bedside care, and creating new clinical roles for the nurse, based on advanced graduate education. They confronted resistance from an older generation of nurses who feared becoming “second-class citizens” in increasingly academic nursing schools, and from academic health care institutions all too comfortable with the gendered hierarchy on which the traditional model of nursing education and practice was predicated. Using the University of Minnesota and University of California—Los Angeles (UCLA) as case studies, and based on institutional records and more than 40 oral histories with nursing and medical faculty, this article describes the generational conflicts this new cadre of nurse educators confronted within schools of nursing, and the institutional politics they struggled with as they sought to secure greater institutional status for the schools among the universities’ other health science units.


2014 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Brown ◽  
Dawn Penney

This article draws on material associated with a solo sailing circumnavigation, undertaken by 16 year old Jessica Watson in 2009–2010, to discuss how her voyage provided a focal point for debates relating to voluntary risk-taking conducted within the sport and leisure context. Specifically, we illustrate how public and media commentaries on her voyage reflect discourses of risk being infused and conflated with discourses of responsibility, youth and gender. Our analysis brings to the fore the contested, moral and political nature of risk discourses in contemporary western society. Public reaction to Watson’s voyage indicates that descriptions of western society as risk-averse fail to capture the situated and dynamic perceptions of risk.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 102-113
Author(s):  
Francesca Bellino

Abstract This paper was written to commemorate the scholar of the Hebrew Bible and the philologist Bruno Chiesa (1949–2015) at the conference on “The Arabic Literary Genizot beyond Denominational Borders” (held at IAS, Princeton, NJ April 20–21, 2017). During his career, Chiesa edited various Judeo-Arabic documentary sources, especially some missing works by al-Qirqisānī (active 1oth century), and investigated the Geniza works as part of his studies on the historical philology of the Hebrew Bible. In the last years of his life, Chiesa has been involved in the cataloguing of the Hebrew and Arabic manuscripts held at the National Library of Turin and in the studying of the documents preserved in the archive of Paul E. Kahle of the University of Turin.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanja Larssen

Watch the VIDEO of the presentation.Open access to research results is a stated aim for the University of Tromsø – The artic university of Norway. The university’s research archive, Munin, has a well-developed system to make available the university’s own research, as well as master theses written by its students. Both master and PhD theses from UiT are delivered directly through Munin and can be made openly available on-line. Despite of this, many candidates choose not to have their theses made openly available through Munin. In my master thesis in document management, I examined why some candidates opt against, or postpone, making their theses openly available through Munin. What factors influence this decision, and are the given reasons based on actual issues or on misconceptions?From Munin I was given access to metadata from previously delivered, and passed, master and PhD theses where the candidate wanted to withhold their theses from being made openly available in Munin. The metadata contained the reasons provided by the candidates for their decision. I also conducted an electronic survey among, then, current master students where the goal was to examine current students’ attitudes towards making their thesis openly available in Munin, and compare the results from this survey with reasons stated by former master and PhD candidates.The main reason provided for postponing or refusing open access to their theses, given by both former master and PhD candidates, and current master students, where the fear that it would impair their chances for future publication. My study also showed that both master and PhD candidates from the faculty of health science are less likely to make their theses openly available in Munin, than candidates from other faculties. This faculty also had more candidates than other expressing concern over the possibilities for future publication.Why do candidates from different faculties within the same university show different attitudes towards having their work openly available? Are candidates right in their concerns regarding open availability and future publication, or are these concerns based on unfounded fears? Does it matter if master and PhD candidates choses not to make their work openly available, and can candidates be encouraged to make their work available?


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