The human body is a precious thing; much of our daily routine is composed of activities

that gear towards the maintenance of it. Eating, pooping, exercising; some even throw in a skin-
care routine in there. Our body is a well-oiled machine with various working parts operating
independently, and together to keep us alive. Our skin tells our brain that we have touched
something scorching hot. Our stomach tells our liver to convert more glucose into glycogen after
a saccharine snack. In a musculoskeletal sense, our body is a kinetic chain, with various
muscles, joints, and nerves working together to permit vital mobility. It does not take a medical
doctor to be able to have a at least grasp of the wonders of the human body; that is why we take
care of it, and hold on to it for dear life, literally. Furthermore, we prioritize our bodies, day in and
day out, because it is something we know for sure is our own -- every organ, every tissue, every
cell. Ours.
Imagine, then, a person hypothetically trying to take that away from you, but the catch is
you are no longer physically able to fight against him/her… because you are dead. There was
no civil conversation between you and this person allowing him/her permission to study you, to
draw blood from you or even extract tissues from you. Let’s call this hypothetical person Dr.
Patty, a licensed pathologist. As a pathologist, one can easily get caught up with all the science
that he becomes oblivious to the man/woman behind the organs; the fact that this person was
loved and was somebody’s somebody, and that it is the responsibility of a doctor, regardless of
specialty, to treat him/her as such. Dr. Patty, meanwhile, is just intrigued by a curious case of
subdural hematoma that supposedly caused your death and was beyond eager  to further
examine your blood and tissues from your brain. The dilemma here, however, is that when you
were still alive, you were adamant about keeping the integrity of your body in check when you
eventually pass on; but now you are no longer able to communicate this resolute stance to Dr.
Patty.
One of the advantages of being a human person vis-à-vis an animal is that we are
capable of cognitive thinking and thus, of having a personal prerogative about things that
matter. When we die; when we are no longer burning the calories we eat to maintain our body
temperature, when our neurons are no longer firing, we essentially lose this edge, and there is a
tendency that we are subsequently treated as less than the humans we actually are. A person
can just become a vast collection of tissues and organs cased inside a convenient package,
ready to be picked apart and studied. Yes, indeed, this is a fact of life… and death for that
matter. You, with the unique backstory and loved ones left alive, can subsequently just be
cadaver #236 in a local morgue somewhere. Viable organs are now extracted and Dr. Patty and
his colleagues are waiting in the wings to use them for the post-mortem report and further
research and studies. In this vein, I guess it begs the question: Is it really that bad for a
pathologist such as Dr. Patty to use your organs for the purpose of knowing the underlying
cause of your death and for possible use in the laboratory for further research?
Dr. Patty is inherently a good person, a good husband, a good father of three, and a
great friend and colleague to his peers. He is very jovial and generally has a positive disposition
about the people around him and life in general. He is a very genuine guy who listens sincerely
to his colleagues and his friends; and is very compassionate towards them. When he puts on
his lab coat and starts dissecting cadavers and eventually studying tissue samples, however, he
is cold and stone-faced as can be, focusing on the science and none on the person. For him, life
outside of work is one thing, and business inside the laboratory is another. He has no problem
slicing a person up and extracting organs from him/her, especially since he has no previous
relations with the person on the examination table. “His death could mean a future breakthrough
in science, but that wouldn’t be possible if I don’t make use of my scalpel first,” he says. Then
came the Human Tissue Act of 2004, which basically forbids doctors of any kind to remove or
store human tissues and organs without consent. This law made Dr. Patty realize how reckless
he has been when it comes to handling the situation of his cadavers. He did not treat these
people with the same respect and compassion as he did his living and breathing associates.
 And so to answer the question posed earlier, I believe that the act of using tissues of
dead people, like Dr. Patty did, is a very genuine intention geared towards further advancement
of science and life in general. One man’s death can mean another man’s life, if breakthroughs
are achieved through the studies of the cadaver samples. The underlying problem is pushing
through with this process without consent of the potential subject of the study. If there was no
opportunity to ask the patient before he dies, any relative can speak on behalf of their departed
loved one. As previously established, the human body is a precious thing. If given proper
consent, having access to organs previously owned by departed persons may open a lot of
doors to medical students, pathologist, etc. for hands-on learning and breakthroughs they may
not acquire from anywhere else.

The bottomline here is that consent is everything, when it comes to acquiring tissues and
organs for studies. Waiting for consent implies compassion for the person to be studied, and for
mankind in general. Dr. Patty had all the right intentions but failing to ask consent in all accounts
of his work, may have negated all the potential returns and breakthroughs he may have
achieved through his studies, because beyond science there is humanity which should have its
own consideration in this world.