The eight medical schools in New York City will no longer accept the city’s unclaimed bodies as cadavers, forswearing a practice that dates back to the 19th century, the schools announced on Wednesday. And a group representing the 16 medical schools in the state is withdrawing its opposition to a recently passed bill that would end the educational use of bodies with no known survivors.

The announcements, made in a statement by the Associated Medical Schools of New York, reflect the changing politics and practicalities of acquiring bodies for dissection in a time of public sensitivity to inequality and informed consent.

New York-based medical schools, which train more students than those in any other state, have had a dwindling need for unclaimed bodies in recent years as their body donation programs grew. Still, the association strongly opposed a bill this year that would require written consent from a spouse or next of kin before city officials could release an unclaimed body to a school, unless the deceased had already registered as a body donor. It cited a current shortfall of 38 cadavers out of about 800 typically used to teach future doctors each year.

But the bill passed both houses overwhelmingly in June, a month after a New York Times investigation highlighted provisions in the current law that give families as little as 48 hours to claim a relative’s body before the city must make it available for dissection or embalming practice.