Assembly to tighten rules to ban commercial use of cadavers

The National Assembly is considering prohibiting the commercial use of cadavers while strengthening the regulations for observing the dissection of a cadaver.

The legislature’s move comes after a company caused controversy by using cadavers for dissection to provide paid lectures to non-medical personnel, including fitness trainers.

According to recent media reports, the company initialized as H provided a paid “human autonomy class” for non-medical personnel, including fitness trainers and Pilates instructors, using cadavers. The course, held at the Catholic University of Korea's Institute of Biomedical Industry, cost about 600,000 won ($430) for three hours.

Emphasizing that "seeing is believing," Company H said that only accurate knowledge of anatomy and understanding of the principles of human movement can effectively produce the desired results before providing exercise guidance.

The company's published curriculum included promotional statements, including "Classes are always taught with fresh cadavers" and "It's not enough to study a lot of concepts and theories from books and pictures," stressing that the classes were given by practicing anatomists.

As some people capitalized on legal loopholes by using medical cadavers for non-medical practitioners with commercial motives like this, both the ruling and opposition parties have set about to amend the law to strengthen the qualifications for anatomy observation.

On June 25, Rep. Park Hae-cheol of the opposition Democratic Party of Korea introduced the “Amendment to the Act on the Dissection and Preservation of Cadavers,” calling for a ban on the commercial use of cadaver dissection.

The amendments prohibit the commercial use of cadaveric dissections and create a new provision that requires permission from the dean of the medical school performing the actual dissection to observe.

The current law strictly regulates the qualifications of those who perform cadaver dissections, but it has no provision for observing them. There is also no prohibition on commercializing cadaver dissection.

On Monday, Rep. Kim Ye-ji of the ruling People Power Party also introduced a bill to amend the Cadaver Dissection Act. Kim's amendment would strengthen the regulations so that the dean of the medical school where the cadaver dissection is performed decides whether or not the human anatomy can be observed.

"There have been cases of providing cadaver dissection classes for Pilates instructors and others in exchange for a certain amount of participation fee, and there are calls for improving related rules," Kim said. "The current law does not have regulations on participation in cadaver dissection, so we are trying to fill in the gaps."

In a news release issued after the controversy emerged last month, the Ministry of Health and Welfare also vowed to improve the system, saying, "Considering the noble intentions of the donors and bereaved families, it is inappropriate to offer anatomy classes for profit."

The ministry added that it would conduct a full survey based on anatomy education materials over the past three years and push for improvements to the system, including amending the law to clarify the prohibition of using cadavers for commercial purposes, mandating deliberations on anatomy and the scope of observation, and resolving problems in medical school education at each institution.