03 Feb 2013

The minister of Education and Skills Development, Dr Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi has called on the nation to avail human corpses for academic use by the University of Botswana School of Medicine students.

“Batswana must be encouraged to accept that dead human bodies are required for academic studies by medical students. Unless the nation accept that and offer corpses to the university, it would be difficult to operate the UB School of Medicine,” she said during her tour of the UB faculty of health sciences new buildings on January 31.

The minister however appreciated that local culture placed maximum respect for the dead thus the need for adequate public education to enable Batswana embrace changing dynamics.Should the university struggle to source dead bodies locally, she said it would therefore have no other option except to import them. “If the bodies could not be sourced locally, we would have to buy them outside,” she said.

The bodies are required for surgical studies and the minister said it was important for students to use real human organs rather than models.

The UB School of medicine has been operational since 2009, and Vice-Chancellor Thabo Fako said it offered quality programmes. 

He said it started with 15 full-time lecturers but now employed 55 academic staff. The minister also toured site of the UB Medical Hospital and was told the hospital construction was seven per cent behind schedule. However, the university management said the hospital would be completed in November. ENDS