Burke and Hare

While reading the part about Burke and Hare, I had a flashback to an earlier time when I read something similar to what they did. I started to get visuals in my head of their actions. I find it sickening that they would kill people and sell them for money (This really reminds me of Sweeney Todd starring Johnny Depp. He killed his customers like Burke and Hare did, except he used the dead bodies to provide meat for his accomplice's meat pies.) I also find it ironic that Burke ended up with the same fate as his customers that he so willingly murdered, and sold; he was hanged and became a cadaver afterward. During these times, they usually let murderers become cadavers, but is this fair? Should they have used murderers as cadavers for a "punishment" and should they still do this with contemperary murderers?

Practice makes perfect. Does it matter how you practice?

"Without exception, the only people who checked themselves in at teaching hospitals were those too poor to pay for private surgery...the poor basically donated themselves as living practice material." Cadavers give the opportunity for surgeons to practice on something without harming a living thing or making any mistakes. It was horrible that surgeons in the past would experiment on poor people knowing that they could make mistakes and kill them. Sometimes they would work on things that the patient didn't even need work on. Also, animals have been used for a number of things when it comes to experimenting. Although it may seem disrespectful to do any thing other than cremate or bury a dead body, cadavers benefit science. Would there be advancements in the science of surgery, make-up and other things if cadavers could not be used to practice procedures? Had we not thought of using cadavers, could we get far with science practicing on living things and risking lives; would it be worth it?