It sounds like a “good” cadaver is young, not too obese or too evidently diseased. And apparently although it’s illegal to buy and sell organs for transplant (one of my obsessions, AMA), it’s legal to sell whole cadavers. But considering that doctors in particular (FAR in excess of the public) consider any form of financial incentive associated with body parts “repugnant,” I wonder if medical schools may not choose to purchase cadavers? If so, this would then mean that there’s a more adequate supply of sold or “low quality” cadavers, but a shortage of donated “high-quality” cadavers, and so abundance can coexist with shortage depending on how one is willing to source them. I have to stress that I’m not confident this is true—it’s just something to look into if you’re curious.
It sounds like a “good” cadaver is young, not too obese or too evidently diseased. And apparently although it’s illegal to buy and sell organs for transplant (one of my obsessions, AMA), it’s legal to sell whole cadavers. But considering that doctors in particular (FAR in excess of the public) consider any form of financial incentive associated with body parts “repugnant,” I wonder if medical schools may not choose to purchase cadavers? If so, this would then mean that there’s a more adequate supply of sold or “low quality” cadavers, but a shortage of donated “high-quality” cadavers, and so abundance can coexist with shortage depending on how one is willing to source them. I have to stress that I’m not confident this is true—it’s just something to look into if you’re curious.