Amending the Nigerian Anatomy Act in Line with Global Trends and Towards Meeting Nigeria’s Need for Sustainable Development: The Proposition

Abstract

The Anatomy Act has been part of the Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria since 1933. Interestingly, the Act though being reviewed had never been majorly amended. This no doubt has affected the applicability, practicality and the relevance of this Act in line with current global trends in the field of Anatomy and Anatomical practices as well as how to use such an act to facilitate nation building and national development. This article presents the product of a critical analysis of the Nigerian Anatomy Act. The current Anatomy Act was critically and objectively evaluated based on the same acts in the selected developed countries using the British Anatomical Act- from which the original Nigerian Anatomy Act was developed- as a reference. For every statute-statement, the applicability in achieving sustainable development was objectively and critically considered. A qualitative table-tool was constructed to assess the current Anatomical Act. Criteria included the statute- statement, the objective and application, relevance, comments on areas of amendment and then the formulated proposition-statement. This article contains the proposition for amendment.