FICEM activities have unfortunately been hampered by most members being absorbed with
dealing with the Corona pandemic and its consequences.

In 2021, following reports of a public dissection of a body donor for the entertainment of a paying public in Portland(USA) in November, FICEM has issued a statement condemning such practices, which has been published on the IFAA website.

The FICEM page on the IFAA website has just been updated, including an update of the
"Suggested Reading" list. The chair of FICEM has contributed to the “IFAA Statement on COVID-19 and body Donors” and to its recent update and to the Recommendations of the German Museum Association on the "Care of Human Remains in Museums and Collections". Other members have successfully established a series of webinars on bioethics in anatomy ("Bioethics Unicorns").

Since last year, four of the FICEM members are working with Valerie DeLeon and others as part of an AAA task force to develop guidelines on how to deal with "legacy collections" and some of their ethical challenges. It has been agreed that once this group has produced a draft, FICEM will look at it to add a more international perspective and to discuss whether it has to be adapted to also become an IFAA document.

Finally, FICEM has organised two sessions for the Istanbul meeting, one on "Anatomical Disciplines as Incubators for Ethics and Professionalism in Healthcare Education" (chaired by Tom Champney), and one on "Historical anatomical collections – Treasure, Legacy, and Challenges" (chaired by Andreas Winkelmann and Brendon Billings), and also an "Open Mic Session" for ethical themes.

29 July 2022
Andreas Winkelmann

Download the original report as PDF.