ROME The film shows about twenty medici in a university classroom. Almost everyone is standing, some are wearing lab coats. In the background, the unmistakable “Gioca Jouer” by Claudio Cecchetto. «Kissing», «Hair», «Greetings». The volume is high. Everyone dances, laughs and imitates gestures in a relaxed and carefree atmosphere. It’s a shame that in front of them, to the right of the desk, you can clearly see a small group of colleagues intent on performing aautopsy on a corpse. Not far away, on the left, another body covered by a sheet. Social media storm and numerous controversies over the video shot during a national course in Malta, which also includes several professors from well-known Italian universities. In a few hours those images of the ballet went viral on the web, arousing anger and indignation from users, who did not miss a good dose of irony. For Filippo Anelli, president of the National Federation of Medical Associations (Fnomceo), however, this is “unbecoming” behavior, which has never happened before in Italy.
DYNAMICS AND FAULTS
«I believe that the profession deserves respect, he added, and that respect is also needed towards corpses. On the part of the medical associations there will be an ethical evaluation of the behavior of the professionals involved.”
The images of the Gioca Jouer dance were recorded a few weeks ago, during «a break in an anatomical exercise abroad on bodies donated for study and training purposes, therefore absolutely detached from the professional and medical-legal context». This is explained by the professor of Forensic Medicine at the University of Catania, Cristoforo Pomara, owner of a session of the national conference of the Italian society of forensic medicine entitled “Live Autopsy”. “It was not a judicial autopsy nor a diagnostic finding”, reiterated the professor, explaining that the video was distributed “illegally”. According to this version of events, the film in fact captures a “relaxing moment, however necessary to ease the tension deriving from the very delicate training activities that are taking place”. At the course which has now become famous for Cecchetto’s dance, “we worked for a week on very difficult dissection techniques, even more than 12 hours a day”.
She looks at the view with a friend, gets unbalanced and falls into the ravine: entrepreneur Dario Lena dies at 57
This is an effort that cannot be “mortified by a few seconds of a video”. Professor Pomara assures on behalf of himself and all those present that there has «never» been «a desire to lack respect. That respect underlines that instead it was lacked by those who disseminated the images in defiance of every principle of confidentiality and that for this reason they will have to account before the judicial authorities and, in the case of a doctor or an academic, also before the competent disciplinary bodies ». In conclusion, the teacher adds that he has already made contact, in this sense, with his lawyer.
DISSENT
The Italian medical examiners registered with Simla, the Italian forensic medicine and insurance society, also intervened in the matter. Through the words of president Francesco Introna they distanced themselves from what happened, defining the attitude of the professionals in that university classroom in Malta as “reprehensible”, where corpses were dissected between one dance step and another. «Autopsies, like surgical interventions, he underlines, are carried out by specialists in the sector and the ethical behavior of Italian medical examiners has always been characterized by the utmost respect for the dignity of the corpse and the relatives». As vice-president Franco Marozzi then announced, today «the entire Simla management is in Rome for the Consensus Conference relating to the medico-legal evaluation of impairments to psycho-physical integrity ranging between ten and one hundred points of permanent disability. We will take advantage of this singular coincidence, he said, to address the issue”, expressing “dissent” and taking “official positions”.
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED