At the upcoming IFAA meeting in Gwangju, Korea, September 5-8 2024, three symposia are supported by FICEM: "Ethical Anatomy in Practice: Contemporary Oversight and Management of Anatomical Programmes and Collections" (chaired by Jon Cornwall), "It’s Legal, but is it Ethical and Practical: Anatomists as Stakeholders in Legislation and Governance" (chaired by Laura Johnson), and "Are You for or against Public Dissection? An Open De-bate" (chaired by Andreas Winkelmann and Claire Smith). See the program.
New recommendations developed by FICEM are on the IFAA website: Recommendations for Good Practice Around Human Tissue Image Acquisition and Use in Anatomy Education and Research
The recommendations of good practice for body donation (published in 2012, authored by Gareth Jones, then chair of FICEM) are directly available on the IFAA website - click the button "RECOMMENDATIONS" in the menu above!
FICEM has produced a set of presentation slides for use in meetings or conferences encouraging body donation and the implementation of body donation programs. These can be freely downloaded as PDF-file or Powerpoint file and can be used and adapted as needed. Feel free to download them and integrate them into your presentation to support ethical ways of body procurement in anatomy.
An updated version of the published "World Map of Body Acquisition" can be found here.
FICEM has produced a Statement on the Public Display of Plastinated Human Bodies, approved by the IFAA executive committee. Follow the link to this page or download the statement as PDF file. In 2021, we have also issued a statement on the Public Dissection of a Body Donor, see this page.

Andreas Winkelmann, September 2024

Members of FICEM

Dr. Eiman Abdel Meguid	UK
Dr. Brendon Billings	South Africa
Prof. Thomas H. Champney	USA
Dr. Jon Cornwall	New Zealand
Prof. Sabine Hildebrandt	USA
Prof. Amadi O. Ihunwo	South Africa
Prof. Gareth Jones	New Zealand
Prof. Diogo Pais	Portugal
Prof. Andrea Oxley da Rocha	Brazil
Brandi Schmitt, MS	USA
Prof. Guo-Fang Tseng	Taiwan
Prof. Andreas Winkelmann (Chair)	Germany

Goals of FICEM

Federative International Committee for Ethics and Medical Humanities (FICEM) of IFAA

For more detail, see our Five Year Strategic Plan

FICEM intends to be a think-tank and adviser for all ethical questions related to anatomical research, anatomical teaching, and anatomical collections and displays. It has been partly re-staffed at the last IFAA meeting in Beijing in 2014 and in London 2019, but will continue the efforts of the previous committee, which culminated in the issue of "Recommendations of Good Practice for the Donation and Study of Human Bodies and Tissues for Anatomical Examination". One of our tasks will be to raise awareness for these guidelines and to support those who may have difficulties adhering to them for cultural or religious reasons.

In upcoming years, we intend to examine with an open and scientific mind the various ways of dealing with ethical issues in anatomical research and education, in order to:

study and compare cultural and philosophical backgrounds in anatomy research and education
learn from the many positive solutions that anatomy communities around the world have developed to deal with ethical issues in anatomy
create a network open to all those with a serious interest in ethical issues in anatomy
make relevant publications on ethical issues in anatomy known to a wider audience
encourage an international discussion among anatomists that brings in perspectives from the humanities and is open to learning from errors of the past and from positive examples of the present

Please feel free to use and distribute the material on this website and do not hesitate to contact members of FICEM (see list under "MEMBERS") for any questions, suggestions, or feedback you may have.

Literature

We have compiled a list of relevant literature, see this extra page: Suggested Reading

Links

This is a preliminary and growing collection of relevant web links in the field of "anatomy and ethics". Please feel free to send links you want to see here to andreas.winkelmann@mhb-fontane.de.

Policies/Statements of National and International Anatomical Organizations / symposia

Position statements of the American Association of Anatomists (AAA)
http://www.anatomy.org/position-statements.html

Statement of the American Association of Clinical Anatomists (AACA) on Body Donation and Body Exhibits
https://clinical-anatomy.org/content.php?page=Anatomical_Services_Commitee#aacapositiononbodyexhibits

Statement of the Anatomische Gesellschaft regarding anatomy during the times of National Socialism (German only)
https://anatomische-gesellschaft.de/index.php?id=geschichte-der-anatomie-im-dritten-reich

Seidelman W, Elbaum L, Hildebrandt S (eds.): How to deal with Holocaust era human remains: recommendations arising from a special symposium. Recommendations/guidelines for the handling of future discoveries of human victims of Nazi terror, and “Vienna Protocol” for when Jewish or possibly-Jewish human remains are discovered, by Rabbi Joseph A. Polak. http://www.bu.edu/jewishstudies/research/project-on-medicine-and-the-holocaust/recommendations-for-the-discovery-of-jewish-remains-project/[bu.edu]

Teaching / Didactic Ressources

Downloadable modules on medical ethics for medical students and healthcare professionals (includes two modules on anatomical themes)
http://reflectionsonmedicine.org

Transeuropean pedagogic anatomical research group
https://teparganatomy.wordpress.com

Links to Willed Body Programs

List of US Willed Body Programs
https://anatbd.acb.med.ufl.edu/usprograms/

Legislation for Human Tissue Use

New Zealand Human Tissue Act
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2008/0028/latest/DLM1152940.html?search=ts_act_human+tissue_resel&p=1

Australian Human Tissue Act
http://www.health.vic.gov.au/humantissue/htact

United Kingdom Human Tissue Act
http://www.hta.gov.uk/legislationpoliciesandcodesofpractice/legislation/humantissueact.cfm

These links to other Internet websites and Information provided by persons not affiliated with FICEM are not endorsements or referrals of any products, services or information contained in such websites, and no information in any such website has been endorsed or approved hereby. information provided and opinions expressed by others do not necessarily represent the opinion of FICEM members.

IFAA

International Federation of Associations of Anatomists

Federation Internationale des Associations d'Anatomistes

Ethics and Medical Humanities (FICEM)

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