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There is a worldwide shortage of organs for transplantation. It has been shown that the attitude of healthcare professionals can improve the rates of organ donation, and that educational programs aimed at improving both attitudes and knowledge base of professionals can have positive outcomes. Although there has been research carried out on this topic, there has been none in Ireland. Anatomy dissection can be a stressor to medical students-we investigate the attitudes of Irish students to organ donation and how they change with exposure to anatomy dissection. A questionnaire was administered to first year students in the School of Medicine in University College Dublin, Ireland, three times over a nine-week period at the commencement of classes in an academic year. The attitudes of the students were positive throughout regarding organ donation by a stranger, a family member, or themselves. There was, however, a significant decrease in support for the donation of a family member's organs in a minority of students. Irish students' attitudes to postmortem organ donation are positive and are not changed by exposure to the dissecting room. There is support for the donation of organs, and willingness among students to donate their own organs and support donation by family members., (Copyright © 2011 American Association of Anatomists.)

Given the important role that anatomical dissection plays in the shaping of medical student attitudes to life and death, these attitudes have not been evaluated in the context of whole body donation for medical science. First year students of anatomy in an Irish university medical school were surveyed by questionnaire before and after the initial dissection and again after 9 weeks of anatomical dissection. Analysis of student responses to the idea of whole body donation by an unrelated stranger, a family member, or by the respondent showed that a priori attitudes to donation by a stranger did not change with exposure to dissection. However, student opposition to donation by a family member was evident immediately after the initial dissection and was sustained throughout the duration of this study. Support for the idea of donating their bodies to medical science decreased significantly among respondents after exposure to dissection (31.5% before dissection, 19.6% after dissecting for 9 weeks) but not to levels reported in the general population in other studies. This study demonstrates that where dissection forms a part of anatomy teaching, students expect to learn anatomy by dissecting donors whom they do not know. As a potential donor population, students are reluctant to become emotionally involved in the donation process and are unwilling to become donors themselves.