Doctors know a lot about how to help people who are sick or injured. But how do they learn how to help people? It takes years of special schooling to learn how to be a doctor. In medical school, doctors learn about peoples’ health from books and classroom discussions, but they also learn by doing experiments, just like other scientists.

To really learn about what’s inside our bodies, student doctors sometimes cut up dead bodies. Bodies that are used by student doctors are called cadavers. Before they die, people sometimes give permission to medical schools to use their bodies to teach doctors. Cutting up a dead body may seem gross, but doctors become accustomed to it. Using cadavers is the best way for a doctor to learn what goes on inside our bodies.