A “handful” of University of Otago medical students have been discovered behaving inappropriately with human remains.
The university declined to comment on the specific numbers, what happened or what action it took, saying fewer than five students had been caught in the last three years and revealing further details risked identifying them.
It followed an Official Information Act request to share whether any medical students had committed misconduct towards human remains or cadaveric material, what they did, and what the university did in response.
“The wider context is that in the three-year period 1800 students have attended Otago Medical School ELM (early learning in medicine programme), and in all but a handful of cases there have not been any incidents of inappropriate conduct in relation to any human remains or cadaveric material,” the university said in its response.
“It is worth noting too that the training within the medical school includes appropriate and respectful protocols for dealing with human remains and cadaveric material.”
Acting Vice-Chancellor Professor Richard Blaikie said disrespectful behaviour would not be tolerated and there were established protocols to deal with any concerns.
“Working with human remains and related materials is a key part of the training of doctors. It is also an enormous privilege which calls for the highest levels of sensitivity and respect,” he said.
“A significant amount of time is spent on instilling these expectations in all medical students before they are allowed to undertake any of this work, and this continues throughout their medical training.”
Failure to understand and follow the rules was extremely rare, but staff had established procedures to respond to any concerns, he said.
“Minor concerns may be able to be dealt with by guidance, but any significant breach would see a student’s continuation in the programme reviewed.”
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