What price dissection? Dissection literally dissected

Hamlet: Has this fellow no feelings of his business, that he sings at grave -making? Horatio: Custom hath made it in him a property of easiness. (Hamlet Act V, scene i)(1) Hamlet is appalled by the gravedigger's insensitivity towards death and cor pses. Horatio explains that the gravedigger is so accustomed to such things that he no larger shares Hamlet's seriousness. We contend that human disse ction may make in medical students and doctors the "property of easiness" i n dealing with death and the human body, and that this may have negative co nsequences for medics and patients. It is perhaps worth emphasising at the outset what this essay is NOT about. We do not wish to can into question th e while of dissection in medical education; to charge dissection with being an inefficient or ineffective means of teaching and learning human anatomy is not our intent. Instead me explore, through the medium of literature, e xperiences of dissection, and what kind of student and doctor may be encour aged or produced by the dissection room; what price might be paid for a pra ctical, first-hand experience of human anatomy.