by Saturn » Fri Apr 26, 2013 6:58 am
I don't think you can look back from our modern perspective and call the people at Guy's and Keats 'villains', they did what they had to do within (and without) the law to obtain materials for their studies, many of which I am sure aided medical progress greatly. Guy's wasn't any worse or better than any other hospital in Britain, America, Europe or anywhere else in this regards. Religious and social customs at that time made dissection a very limited practise, insufficient for the number of students in the medical profession and they had to get bodies somehow. I don't think the students themselves would have participated in actions like that, but there were ways and means, most infamously, a bit later, the notorious Burke and Hare.
Of course I don't agree with grave robbing or anything like that, but looking back in history from our state of medical knowledge and damning those who've gone before and made breakthroughs in often very distasteful circumstances is a bit harsh I think.
"Oh what a misery it is to have an intellect in splints".