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

• Goals of FICEM
• Members of FICEM
• Contact details
• News
• Literature
• Links

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Goals of FICEM

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 also responds to incidents and issues of importance with position statements that represent the ethical perspectives of the IFAA.

The current FICEM committee membership looks to continue the efforts of previous committees, which culminated in the issue of 'Recommendations of Good Practice for the Donation and Study of Human Bodies and Tissues for Anatomical Examination' in 2012, and in the development of subsequent recommendations on topics related to ethical issues in anatomy.

One of the tasks of FICEM is to raise awareness of 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 any of the material found on these web pages. 

For more detail, see our Five Year Strategic Plan.

Members of FICEM (2024)

Dr. Jon Cornwall (Chair)	New Zealand
Dr. Brendon Billings	South Africa
Prof. Thomas H. Champney	USA
Prof. Sabine Hildebrandt	USA
Prof. Gareth Jones	New Zealand
Prof. Diogo Pais	Portugal
Brandi Schmitt	USA
Prof. Guo-Fang Tseng	Taiwan
Prof. Andreas Winkelmann	Germany
Prof. Sanjib K. Ghosh	India
Prof. Ìlke Ali Gürses	Turkey
Prof. Susana Biasutto (Ex officio; Chair, FISBoD)	Argentina

Contact Details

If you wish to engage with FICEM or individual members of FICEM (see list of 'members', above) for any questions, suggestions, or feedback you may have regarding either FICEM or the topic of ethics in anatomy, please feel free to do so. In the first instance, please contact the Chair of FICEM, Jon Cornwall ( jon.cornwall[at]otago.ac.nz ) to facilitate interaction with FICEM members. 

News

• Four new recommendations and advisories have been published by FICEM and are available under recommendations: Recommendations for good practice for the donation and anatomical study of human remains (revised 2026), Statement on the Presence of Plastination Vendors at Conferences, Ethical considerations and advisory regarding plastination of human tissues, Ethical considerations and advisory regarding 3D-printed reproduction of human tissues.
• At the recent IFAA meeting in Gwangju, Korea, September 5-8 2024, three symposia were 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 Debate" (chaired by Andreas Winkelmann and Claire Smith). The prevalence of symposia and presentations on ethics in anatomy was a consistent feature of the conference. See the program for details.
• Recommendations developed by FICEM are available on the IFAA website - see the button 'RECOMMENDATIONS' in the toolbar at the top of the page. This includes new recommendations around images, 'Recommendations for Good Practice Around Human Tissue Image Acquisition and Use in Anatomy Education and Research' (2023) AND the previously developed 'Recommendations of Good Practice for Body Donation' (2012).
• FICEM has produced a set of presentation slides for use in meetings or conferences that encourage 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 (2024) 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, FICEM also issued a statement on the Public Dissection of a Body Donor; see this page.

Jon Cornwall, October 2024

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Literature

FICEM members have compiled a list of relevant literature in the field of ethics in anatomy; see this page: Suggested Reading

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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: jon.cornwall[at]otago.ac.nz

Policies / Statements of National and International Anatomical Organizations / symposia

Policies of the American Association of Anatomists  (AAA)
AAA Policies

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]

American Association for Anatomy (AAA) recommendations for the management of legacy anatomical collections. Cornwall J, Champney TH, de la Cova C, Hall D, Hildebrandt S, Mussell JC, Winklemann A, DeLeon VB. [Open access] https://anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ar.25410

Teaching / Didactic Resources

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

Ethics and Professionalism in Anatomy Teaching Resources https://www.anatomy.org/ANATOMY/ANATOMY/Resources/Anatomy-Ethics-Resources.aspx

Links to Willed Body Programs

List of US Willed Body Programs
https://ttuhscep.edu/som/dme/educational-resources/anatomical-donations-programs-US.aspx

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
https://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdb/au/legis/nsw/consol_act/hta1983160/

United Kingdom Human Tissue Act
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2004/30/contents

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.