‘Nevertheless, there are honors due all the dead’—a case of bioethical concern in a medical school cadaveric dissection

Cadaveric dissection during medical school often reveals previously undocumented pathology. Occasionally, pathology with potential hereditary origins is discovered. The current medical literature lacks substantial documentation of such occurrences, nor is there guidance for what to do with such a finding. These discoveries raise a series of ethical questions, foremost among them: What responsibilities do medical students, and their institutions, owe to the dead and their living family? Currently, body donation consent forms lack standardisation; we feel balancing the autonomy of the deceased and beneficence towards the living is best realised in a body donation consent process that includes the disclosure of potentially hereditary pathology to living family members as the default position.