BODY DONATION FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES AS A TESTAMENTARY DISPOSITION

10.51204/Anali_PFBU_26204A

The education of future medical practitioners and scientists requires adherence to ethical principles, the acquisition of theoretical knowledge, and the continuous development of practical skills. Even today, some of these skills can hardly be acquired without training on human cadavers. While cadaver dissection remains essential to medical education, it also raises important ethical and legal concerns. This article examines how medical schools in Serbia obtain bodies for educational purposes. Voluntary body donation by last will, once the most common practice, remains the only legal mechanism. This creates a significant gap between the need for teaching material and the strict formal requirements prescribed by law. Against the background of previous theoretical and empirical research, the article explores the rationale for these requirements, particularly in light of their inconsistency with related rules of Serbian inheritance law.

1. Aneja, Prachi Saffar, Savita Bansal, Kuldip Singh Sood, Amit Saxena. 16/2013. Body donation – a dilemma among doctors. Journal of Evolution of Medical and Dental Sciences 2: 2585–2593.
2. Antić, Oliver, Zoran Balinovac. 1996. Komentar Zakona o nasleđivanju. Belgrade: Nomos.
3. Bharambe, Vaishaly Kishore, Arun Prasad, Raju Bokan, Sneha Kalthur, Purushottam Manvikar, Vatsalaswamy Puranam. 3/2023. The anatomist’s perspective today towards human body donation for procurement of cadavers for study of human anatomy. Electronic Journal of General Medicine 20: em480.
4. Claes, Tinne. 2/2018. “By What Right does the Scalpel Enter the Pauper’s Corpse?” Dissections and Consent in Late Nineteenth-Century Belgium. Social History of Medicine 31: 258–277.
5. Lazar Marinković. 2015. Druga strana smrti: Kada zaveštate telo nauci u Srbiji. VICE. 11 November. https://www.vice.com/sr/article/druga-strana-smrti-vaznost-zavestanja-tela-medicini-u-srbiji/, last visited March 17, 2026.
6. Estai, Mohamed, Stuart Bunt. 2016. Best teaching practices in anatomy education: A critical review. Annals of anatomy 208: 151–157.
7. Hutchinson, Erin F., Beverley Kramer, Brendon K. Billings, Desiré M. Brits, Nalini Pather. 4/2020. The Law, Ethics and Body Donation: A Tale of Two Bequeathal Programs. Anatomical Sciences Education 13: 512–519.
8. Klasiček, Dubravka. 2/2019. 21st Century Wills. Pravni vjesnik 35: 29–48.
9. Krstić, Novak. 106/2025. Strogi formalizam zaveštanja ili suverenost poslednje volje – čemu dati primat? Zbornik radova Pravnog fakulteta u Nišu 64: 57–76.
10. Singh, Amitpal C. 3/2021. The Body as Me and Mine: The Case for Property Rights in Attached Body Parts. McGill Law Journal 66: 565–601.
11. Mason Ken, Laurie Graeme. 5/2001. Consent or Property? Dealing with the Body and Its Parts in the Shadow of Bristol and Alder Hey. The Modern Law Review 64: 710–729.
12. Shevelev, Arseny, Georgy Shevelev. 4/2023. The Nature of the Right in a Dead Body Revisited: A Study in Comparative Legal Ideas. Louisiana Law Review 83: 1361–1430.
13. Sperling, Daniel. 2008. Posthumous Interests: Legal and Ethical Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
14. Stojanović, Nataša. 2022. Nasledno pravo. Niš: Punta.
15. Svorcan, Slobodan. 2009. Nasledno pravo. Kragujevac: Pravni fakultet u Kragujevcu.
16. Washmuth, Nicholas B., Terri Cahoon, Katrina Tuggle, Ronald N. Hunsinger. 2019. Virtual Dissection: Alternative to Cadaveric Dissection for a Pregnant Nurse Anesthesia Student. Health Professions Education 6: 247–255.
17. Wong, Li Ping, Haridah Alias, Sik-Loo Tan, Aik Saw. 4/2023. Conduct of body donation and cadaveric dissection training during the COVID-19 pandemic: challenges, impacts and mitigation. Anatomical Science International 98: 558–565.
18. Zdilla, Matthew J., Joy Y. Balta. 1/2023. Human body donation and surgical training: a narrative review with global perspectives.
19. Anatomical Science International 98: 1–11.