Anatomy Act 1832

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Anatomy Act 1832

An Act of UK Parliament which was created in response to
(1) the growing need for cadavers for teaching anatomy at medical schools and
(2) the Murder Act 1752, which limited anatomic dissection to the corpses of executed murderers.
The Act gave physicians, surgeons, and medical students legal access to corpses of people who had died in prison or workhouses, and allowed a person to donate his own or next of kin's corpse in exchange for a burial paid by the donee.

Mentioned in ?

Burke and Hare murders

References in periodicals archive ?

The Anatomy Act of 1832 was intended to relieve pressure upon medical schools needing a constant supply of recent corpses for teaching and experimentation purposes.

How body of opinion swung in mayor's favour

And before the Anatomy Act of 1832, students practised dissection on animals and bodies they stole from graves.

BEST OF THE REST

As the UK was the first country to appoint inspectors of anatomy under the Anatomy Act of 1832, [5] and since then has moved towards the appointment of the Human Tissue Authority, [4] this study draws comparisons between the UK and SA in this respect.

A study of the role and functions of inspectors of anatomy in South Africa

Before the Anatomy Act of 1832 expanded the legal supply of bodies, cadavers for dissection in medical schools were in short supply and grave robbing by "resurrectionists" became the main source.

OLD EDINBURGH THE MAGICIANS, FLAKES AND A DOG CALLED BUM

The Anatomy Act of 1832 gave license to teachers of anatomy and medical students to dissect donated bodies.

Possessing the Dead: The Artful Science of Anatomy

The Anatomy Act of 1832 ended the practice, although the bodies of the destitute were still passed over to the anatomists for medical dissection.

A place for healing and wisdom; medicine For 170 years, from the days of incurable diseases, through all the advances in surgery and pharmacy, a Liverpool building has been home to great healers

It was only the Anatomy Act of 1832, which outlawed grave-robbing and restricted the legal supply of corpses to teaching hospitals and universities, that finally signalled the decline of private anatomy teaching in London.

John Hunter and the anatomy of a museum: Simon Chaplin describes the extraordinary personal museum of the 18th-century anatomist and gentleman-dissector John Hunter, and suggests that this, and others like it, played a critical role in establishing an acceptable view of dissection

Burke's trial was huge and helped trigger the writing of the legislation which would become the Anatomy Act of 1832.

Bodies of evidence

Public outcry eventually led to the Anatomy Act of 1832, which authorised the use of deceased institutionalised paupers.