Body donors teach would-be doctors lesson about life

Tianjin Medical University professors look to instill awareness of profession

Huang Yixin, a freshman in stomatology (oral medicine) at Tianjin Medical University, was very impressed by her first class, which was held in the country's first will and testament showroom－the Showroom of the Meaning of Life－in the university's library on Sept 15.

The teacher showed students wills made by people who had donated their bodies to the university.

The donors were people of all ages. The oldest was 87 and the youngest just 13 days old, whose wills were written by their parents.

Huang said she believed that although their lives had come to an end, it was possible to say that the donors still lived on in the world, just in a different way.

"I used to have only a vague impression of what it meant to be a doctor. After that first class, however, I began to understand my responsibilities," she said.

"By following our university motto of seeking truth and goodness, and taking health and life as my beliefs, I'll try to make myself the best medical student possible."

The showroom is part of a memorial hall for the university's founder, Zhu Xianyi, a renowned endocrinologist and medical educator, who donated his body, his savings and his home to the university after his death.

Lu Yuhong, an assistant professor at the School of Marxism, said that the showroom had previously been part of the Medical Ethics Teaching Center, but in 2005, it was turned into the Showroom of the Meaning of Life, becoming the country's first showroom for wills and testaments.

"The university has hundreds of testaments from people who have donated their bodies or corneas to medical research, so it decided to set up this showroom to educate the students for the greater good of the university and society," said Lu, who helped set up the showroom while she was teaching ethics.

"Since then, the first and the last class of every student, from freshman to doctoral level, are held there to influence their awareness of the meaning of life and their esteemed profession," Lu said.

As of April, 971 people had donated their bodies to the university, and 225 had donated their corneas.

"Fewer than 100 donor testaments are on display in the showroom, but the university is keeping the remaining ones properly preserved," said Wang Ying, deputy director of the university's publicity department. "We expect they will help students enrich their outlook on life and lead them to think deeply on the meaning of birth and death."

Most donors, whose names are also inscribed on the walls of the showroom, are ordinary people from varied walks of life, and their final wishes are simple, but worth of respect.

Most deal with instructions regarding inheritance and the donors' desire for their grandchildren to study hard to take up respectable careers, but they also contain the wish to make their final contribution to society by donating their own bodies. "My mother and my wife have passed away, so I can leave nothing to them," one wrote. "I think I want to leave my body to science as my final gesture and contribution to the country as a gift."

Zhao Yonghua, the only donor to have both his photo and his testament in the showroom, is still alive.

To date, he and his wife have helped more than 1,300 people in Tianjin donate their bodies to medical research in the city. They are also helping take care of 10 childless senior citizens and took care of another seven until they passed away.

Zhao's testament is simple, it only notes that he feels his contribution is of great value to his life as a whole.

The showroom also highlights the university's leading role in stem cell and blood donations in Tianjin.

So far, 37 students have donated stem cells and 6,695 have donated blood, among them a Malaysian student who gave stem cells in 2012.