Kaitlin Shaw is a freelancer for The Cat Scan

A university’s student senate offers future leaders and politicians a chance to discuss student issues and delegate funds to student organizations.

Turns out, it also can be a place to haggle cost over dead bodies.

“You can get body parts for a lot cheaper,” said Steven Gerner, an Associated Students of the University of Arizona Senator.

While no one could give a conclusive answer on the actual cost of body parts, ASUA Senators spent a large part of Wednesday night’s meeting debating a $4,052 request by a newly-formed student anatomy group for the purchase of two cadavers for undergraduate study.

The senate failed to reach a final decision, and now the Anatomy Enthusiast Society (AES) waits for corpses.

The idea for the club started nearly 16 months ago when Tina Skrepnik began working at a local surgical lab. The University of Arizona physiology and art history junior began thinking about the possibility of giving undergraduate students interested in medicine a rare chance to work on cadavers.

“Nothing like this has ever been done before,” said Dr. William Rappaport, a professor at the UA’s College of Medicine who has tentatively agreed to teach students about dissections once a month after the club gains access to a cadaver.

In the UA’s medical program, students are gradually introduced to the experience of working with a cadaver.

“It’s a very traumatic experience for people the first time,” said Rappaport.

The experience often weeds out students after they’ve already paid for and started post-graduate studies.

“It would be really helpful to see if they can stomach it,” said Skrepnik of fellow pre-med students.

Lupe Sandoval, a first year pharmacy student who is getting ready to take her first cadaver course, agreed that the club would be beneficial to pre-med students. She said that, from personal experience, looking at pictures and studying models is “not the same as seeing an actual body.”

Some current medical students had a mixed opinion on what is the most effective way to prepare for medical school.

“True patient experience is the best,” said Jason Schemp, a third-year medical student. “That’s what motivates us and gets us through our shifts.”

Schemp’s friend, fellow third-year medical student, Mark Mamlouk, also felt that the program would be better “if coupled with clinical volunteering.”

While Dr. Rappaport has agreed to contribute one night a month to the club, he has apprehensions about the club’s operations.

“I think it could be a good thing if done right,” he said. “It’s a very traumatic experience, and you must have respect for the donor’s body.”

In spite of reservations by some, Skrepnik knew there was an initial interest from talking with schoolmates and fellow student-workers. After officially forming the club, she received more and more e-mails from interested students. But cost issues forced her to limit membership to about 20 students.

“I wish we could have 5,000 people,” Skrepnik said. “But that would just be too expensive.”

Although the storage would be provided by a local surgical lab, the cost of the program comes largely from gaining access to cadavers.

The cadavers are provided to the surgical lab through the Willed Body program, which is funded through the UA’s College of Medicine and provides cadavers to educational institutions across Arizona.

The donated bodies come from people who have voluntarily made arrangements with the program prior to their death. It is illegal in Arizona to buy or sell bodies, or body parts, but the program does charge a $1,000 processing fee per cadaver, said Susan Eastman, a Willed Body program coordinator.

The fee covers the cost of embalming the body for long-term storage (some have lasted up to five years) and running tests to check for tuberculosis, hepatitis or any other communicable disease.

In addition to paying for the cadaver, members of the AES would be required to provide vaccination records and become certified in cadaver safety, Skrepnik said. They would also be provided with packets of information about working on cadavers and human anatomy.

The cost of two cadavers, plus training, equipment and space fees brought the total request from the AES up to $4,052.

ASUA Club Advocate Tom Connor aided Skrepnik through the fundings request process.

“This is, by far, the most unique and unusual request I’ve ever seen,” said Connor, an undeclared sophomore.

He was impressed because “most associations are asking for money for t-shirts or a trip to California.”

Once the issue arose at the ASUA meeting, the room was filled with hushed whispers, confused voices and even some quiet laughs. The senate members themselves seemed unsure of what questions to ask or how to handle the strange request.

Senate member Bryan Hill wanted to make sure the students would have legitimate supervision with the cadavers and not hold some “weird house party.”

Connor assured the senators there was “nothing creepy or absurd” about the request in any way. Connor spoke on behalf of the group since Tina Skrepnik was unable to attend the meeting.

“These students are driven and have a desire to get involved with medicine,” Connor told the Senate.

Some had reservations about the cost and the specifics of the activity.

“For such a limited amount of people in this society” the cost was extremely high, pointed out Senator Jan Dang.

Some senators were willing to compromise and provide funding for just one cadaver.

It is “still an amazing experience with just one,” Hill said.

After two attempts to vote on the topic, ASUA Senators finally decided to send the request back the Appropriations Committee for further discussion.

Senator Shawn Ingram, a UA junior studying finance, also heads the Appropriations Committee and expects the funding amount to be decreased, but not completely denied. He said that the problem wasn’t the program, but the large amount of money in relation to what other clubs ask for. He expects the funding request to be approved on the second round.

Despite the setback to the club’s timeline, Skrepnik is not one to be hindered.

“We’re going to create a business plan and present that to private companies.” The AES is also considering approaching specific departments, such as anatomy, at the university for their financial support.


A correction was made to this story on 02/22/2007