The ethics of using newly dead patients for teaching and practicing intubation techniques.

The clinical training of medical students, interns, and residents raises a number of ethical questions. A dilemma faced by all clinical educators is whether to permit a trainee to learn therapeutic and diagnostic procedures by practicing on patients.1 The dilemma lies in the choice between two obligations: to educate health care providers and to protect the physical and psychological integrity of patients.2 The issue of nontherapeutic interventions for training purposes or research in patients who have not given consent raises the most intriguing and controversial ethical questions.3 A common practice is the teaching and practicing of intubation skills on patients . . .