Ethical perspectives on the Japanese guidelines for cadaver surgical training (CST)

Cadaver surgical training (CST), which aims to maintain patient safety, provided anatomists with new duties and increased their workload. In Japan, with development of relevant guidelines, CST programs have been implemented and promoted mainly by surgical societies. This paper examines ethics of and anatomists’ attitude toward the Japanese CST guidelines. The guidelines were well established to ensure that ethical issues such as financial exploitation and commercialism involved in procurement of cadavers for training do not emerge, as these can create the dilemma of how to allocate cadavers for undergraduate education and postgraduate surgical training, given the increase in demand for cadavers. Fair allocation must accommodate and respect the donor’s advance will. Also, the guidelines must offer more detailed commentary on informed consent, particularly with regard to disclosure of information to donor candidates. The guidelines should explain better the legality of CST, the roles of anatomists, and surgeon preparedness.