As you might expect, the rules surrounding
how one goes about donating ones body FOR. SCIENCE varies a little from region to region,
though the general process and what happens after you donate seems to be relatively consistent. For instance, in the United Kingdom, donating
ones body typically involves nothing more than filling out a few forms provided by your
nearest university or medical school. Under British law and the Human Tissue Act
of 2004, written and witnessed consent is required prior to death for a medical authority
to claim a body and its highly recommended that you make your family aware of your wishes
to expedite the process of transporting your body after death.
The latter is important as it is possible
in the UK for your next of kin to override your final wishes in regards to organ and
body donation, and just in general its a good idea to process your body quickly lest
it get rejected for not being, for lack of a better phrase, fresh enough. Speaking of organ donation and body rejection,
in most cases being an organ donor whose organs are harvested will disqualify you from subsequently
donating your body to science directly (though there is a potential loophole in the United
States in going through a body broker, which well get to shortly). However, it is possible to be both a body
and organ donor simultaneously regardless of what side of the pond youre on; in this
case, in the event that your organs are deemed unsuitable for transplantation, the relevant
medical authority youve willed ownership of your body to can then choose to take your
body or not at their discretion. On that note, while there are no universal
rules for what condition your body has to be in at the time of death for a medical authority
to be able to make use of it, a number of things can exclude you immediately from being
considered.
For instance, youll almost certainly be
disqualified from donating your body if you die of a communicable illness or anything
that doesnt have a known cause but which may be communicable. In fact, among the first things done to donated
bodies, beyond refrigerating them to slow decomposition, is to test them for any infectious
diseases. After this, the body will typically be embalmed,
though there are exceptions to this, such as if its being used for study on how the
body decomposes naturally over time in certain scenarios, as is sometime done with CSI training
or investigation. Another way your body will usually be disqualified
is if you die in a manner which renders it in any way abnormal.
So, for example, if you die in a severe car
crash or from a disease which wastes away your organs or muscle, it may be rejected
due to the fact that institutions accepting bodies usually only want cadavers that are
representative of a healthy adult. As one source puts it: In a way, to successfully
donate your body, you have to be in perfect health. But dead. But, again, there are always exceptions and,
for example, researchers wanting to study some disease or the effects of a given car
crash may be interested in your body, just particularly in the latter case that can be
hard to arrange beforehand.
Even if your body is relatively unscathed
at the time of death, if you die under mysterious or suspicious circumstances and an autopsy
needs to be performed, theres a good chance this too will result in your body being rejected. Other things that can result in your body
being rejected, according to one non-exhaustive list provided by the University of Liverpool
include: bedsores being present on your body at the time of death, dying of an aortic aneurysm
and being obese. Your body could also potentially be rejected
if the relevant medical authority simply has no room for more bodies or you happen to die
at a time of year when nobody is around to study your corpse in a relatively timely manner,
such as during the holidays in late December. Its also important to note that in the
event your body is rejected, the medical authority you willed it to will take no responsibility
for your bodys disposal and the relevant funerary costs will, thus, fall to your estate.
On the other hand, if your body is accepted,
the medical authority studying it will often, depending on the wishes of you or your family,
cremate the remains free of charge, or otherwise return them to your family for a private service
at your own expense. Interestingly, because medical institutions
potentially cover the costs of the disposal of your body, a not insignificant number Britons
have relatively recently started to opt into donating their body to science in the
hopes that if their body is accepted, their loved ones wont have to pay expensive funeral
costs, which in Britain in 2016 averaged about 3,702 (~$5,000) per funeral. Over in the United States, the criteria for
donating a body to science is basically the same and require you to sign a few forms signalling
consent prior to death and, again, its a good idea to inform your family of your
wishes in regards to body disposal because, as in the UK, the ultimate decision of what
happens to your body rests with your kin. As the Forensic Anthropology Center of the
University of Tennessee puts it: Regardless of what you have arranged, signed
or instructed, your family or next-of-kin has the final say.
We will not fight your family for your body. We urge you to convince your family that the
donation is what you want at your death. Also like in the UK, certain factors can render
your body unsuitable for study and, for the most part, theyre fairly comparable- death
from extreme trauma, infectious disease and certain cancers can all cause your body to
be rejected, as can being obese. On that note, most medical institutions in
the United States place a height and weight limit on the cadavers theyll accept, usually
limited to 6 feet (1.83 Meters) and a max of between 180-200 lbs (82-91 kg) depending
on the medical institution.
The main reasons for these restrictions are
practical in nature, with it being noted that transporting obese bodies is more difficult
and that the medical tables typically used arent large enough to accommodate pleasantly
plump corpses or those whore very tall. On top of this, dissecting obese bodies is
also more difficult owing to having to slice through a lot of fat just to get to whats
being studied. Having organs and arteries and the like a
bit more accessible thanks to low body fat percentage is just easier to work with. Or, as Louisiana State University professor
Steven Heymsfield very frankly states, When youre doing medical dissection, and youre
up to your elbows in fat, its greasy and unpleasant.
In the UK, no such height limit is explicitly
specified in any literature we could find, although especially large persons (either
in regards to height or weight) are advised that their bodies might be rejected, with
the common reason listed being difficulty in moving the body. Unlike Britons, thanks to competition for
bodies being stiff in the states, American citizens who are somewhat petite have a great
deal of choice when it comes to donating their body to science. And if youre now wondering why competition
is high in the land of the descendants of traitors to the British crown, besides the
larger number of institutions needing bodies, only a small fraction of the 100 million or
so people who opt into organ donation end up opting to alternately donate their body
to science. This is despite full body donation arguably
being just as beneficial as organ donation, if not more so in some cases in that the benefit
to science can potential help many people, instead of just a maximum of a handful as
in organ donation.
(And, note, as with organ donation, a single
body can, and often is, used for several research projects.) As the Associate Director for Education at
Indiana University School of Medicine, Ernest Talarico, notes, You literally help tens
of thousands, hundreds of thousands with donation. Its not only those who learn from you;
its also the research and those who learn from the research. Because of the high need for bodies, some
companies in the U.S. Have made a fortune acting as a middleman of sorts between families
and scientific institutions.
Said companies generally offer to pay the
costs of cremation and the transportation and storage of the body to and from wherever
it is needed. For instance, Science Care has taken the idea
to its logical extreme, comparing themselves to McDonalds in that they deliver a product
(in this case, human bodies and body parts) of consistent quality regardless of where
the institution wanting the body or body part is in the country. In fact, its reported from 2012-2014 alone,
Science Care brought in a cool $12.5 Million selling human remains, which is only publicly
known due to certain court filings. Another body broker, Research for Life, notes
they typically get about $2,500-$3,000 profit per full body.
As for gross cost, documents from another
body broker, Biological Resource Center, showed they were charging $5,893 per whole body in
2013, but could potentially make more if slicing the body up. For instance, they listed a price of $1,900
for a spine, $3,500 for a torso, and $1,300 for a leg One of the main controversies with such for-profit
body brokers is that its not clear how many of the people signing up to them realise
these companies generate income by selling body parts (or whole bodies) from those who
donate their deceased selves to the companies. To be fair, though, it should be noted that,
at least in the case of Science Care, their donor consent form does explicitly state the
for-profit nature of the company. And for those wanting to increase the odds
that their family wont have to shell out any money for disposing of ones remains,
companies like these do offer a reasonably good outlet.
As previously noted, some body brokers also
allow you to donate your organs first and then they take the rest of you to sell off
at their discretion. With most all of these companies, though,
you just have to understand that what happens to your body after they get it isnt generally
something you or your loved ones have much say in. For instance, certain of these organizations
have taken advantage of the fact that there is little in the way of oversight in the body
donation industry (unlike organ donation, which is regulated), sometimes using bodies
in ways explicitly against the wishes of the deceased when they filled out the paper work. Other such companies simply note right on
the application form that they cant be sure what your body or body parts will ultimately
be used for.
So, as with everything in life, even in death,
if youre getting a product for free, odds are reasonable youre the product. Its just that in this case the old adage
is a little more literal than usual. Some people, of course, have a huge problem
with such for-profit body broker companies, while others are just happy to maximize the
odds of their loved ones not having to pay for an expensive burial or cremation, caring
little about whats done with their corpse. Moving swiftly on, whether donating to a medical
institution directly or to a body broker, theres a wide range of career options available
to the discerning corpse, not just in giving medical students incredibly valuable practice
working on a human body that doesnt care if they screw up.
As for these dead body career options, doctors
may use your body to train in some new and innovative surgical method or with some new
piece of equipment. Being able to use your corpse for this can
be a huge benefit in reducing the risk of mistakes when operating on the living. A somewhat more exciting cadaver career path
can be found at the University of Tennessees Forensic Anthropology Center where they have
been watching bodies decompose in various ways for about three decades now. (If you live within 200 miles and they accept
your body, theyll even transport it for free.) One of the many ways in which they might use
your body is to mimic various ways in which people are murdered and then just observe
the effects on your body, possibly even over spans of many years.
They also might use a living picture of you
to observe the change in your visage to help them figure out how a given corpse probably
looked in life. This and many other such experiments provide
incredibly valuable data to a variety of fields, most notably in this case crime scene investigation. If being murdered after you die and then observed
as you decompose isnt your thing, when you donate your body, some institutions allow
for selecting to donate for Safety Testing. If you check that box, your body then may
be used as a crash test dummy.
While this might seem a bit bizarre if youve
never heard of it before, the use of dead bodies in car safety testing is something
every car manufacturer benefits from when testing some new safety device or car design. Although, when asked, most seem prone to outright
deny they test in this way. For some, its technically true that they
dont in that they may simply donate funds to various medical institutions that in turn
at the behest of the company and the National Highway Traffic Administration use bodies
to test various cars and car safety equipment. So its not technically the car company
doing it.
Depending on the nature of the deal, the data
collected may be available to all car companies (and the public) or, in some cases, such as
with Fords inflatable seat belts, the information may only be shared with the company and the
National Highway Traffic Administration. In these proprietary cases, the information
is declared by the company as confidential business information so that its not even
available through a Freedom of Information Act request to the NHTA. Perhaps gruesome to some, use of your body
in this way can potentially save thousands of lives, as no artificial crash test dummy
perfectly mimics the human body like, well, a human body can. As former Ford safety researcher Priya Prasad
notes, Even though we have very good math modeling of dummies, human modeling hasnt
reached that state yet.
(For anyone wondering, we checked and as far
as we can tell neither Ferrari nor Lamborghini offer such a program. That could mean they really dont use human
bodies in crash tests, or it could mean they, like seemingly all major car companies, dont
like to admit they do or otherwise fund such research on their cars. Either way, given the number of non-sports
car models produced is much greater than the blazing fast variety, keep in mind that if
you opt to have your body used in safety testing and youre selected for crash testing, your
corpse will probably end up stuck driving a rather boring family car.) Beyond crash tests, there are countless other
ways in which your body might be used if you opt for safety testing, including in testing
various helmet types. In fact, some dead peoples heads are presently
being used to design better helmets for those who participate in American Football- as you
can imagine, the NFL is particularly interested in this line of research, but its also
potentially massively beneficial for the many thousands of teens who play the sport.
In the end, if something is used to protect
a human in some way and its made by a major corporation, odds are strong at some point
said device was tested on dead people, generally via grants given to medical institutions who
actually have access to the bodies. If having your head put in prototype helmets
and bashed up against hard surfaces or having your body involved in a mini-van crash isnt
your thing, another, slightly more badass sounding, option is to donate your body to
a medical institution and, assuming the option is available, opt into use by the military. If accepted, your body will likely be loaded
with state of the art sensors and then used to help test new weapons and armor, or just
used in things like testing a given explosions affect on a human body. Yes, if youd like to help protect the troops
or to help in the design of weapons for making more bodies, you too can potentially have
your corpse blown up FOR MILITARY SCIENCE! Or, if youre more of a pacifist, you may
have the option to spend the afterlife as a skeleton But not like other skeletons- a skeleton examined
by countless researchers.
Yes, there are numerous anthropology departments
across America who can take your body and strip it down to such for study and research. In these cases, of course, your skeleton will
likely not be cremated or otherwise returned to your loved ones. On this note, the University of Tennessee
currently boasts an impressive collection over around 1,000 full human skeletons, noting,
Every individual donated to the skeletal collection is also used to educate, train
and provide a resource for research in forensic taphonomy And for the extreme exhibitionists among you,
its even possible to donate your body, or at least part of it, to be put on public
display. Besides the famed Body Worlds exhibition,
The Mutter Museum in Philadelphia is one such option for such.
So to sum up, whatever youd like your body
to be used for once youre done with it, donating your body to science is simply
a matter of first contacting a relevant authority or institution- usually your local medical
school is your best bet, though if you just want the free body disposal and dont care
whats done with your corpse, a body broker isnt necessarily a bad option. Either way, youll then only need to fill
out a few quick forms to signal your consent to make it happen. And best to also explicitly mention to your
loved ones that those are your wishes to make sure things go smoothly after you die. Also, for most every option, you should generally
plan that your estate may need to at the least pay for transport of your body, and possibly
that your body will be rejected when the time comes, meaning funds for a more typical body
disposal will be needed.
And, hey, if your body is accepted and the
institution chooses to go ahead and handle all the fees, thats just extra money freed
up for use by your loved ones to throw a better party in your honour with. Its speculated that the likely reasons
for the large disparity between people opting into organ donation vs. Full body donation
in the United States are that donating ones entire body is somewhat stigmatized, rather
than celebrated as in organ donation; arranging to donate your body requires slightly more
effort than just checking a box on a form when renewing your license or the like; and
the average American male particularly simply has a body outside of the height/weight range
usually accepted by medical institutions (max of ~180-200 lbs and 6ft tall). For reference here, the average adult American
male rings in at about 195 pounds and 5 feet 10 inches (1.8 Meters) tall according to the
CDC.
Given that this is more the norm than the
more physically fit bodies many medical students and doctors practice on, there has been some
call of late to start accepting bodies with a bit more girth and height so said medical
students will end up getting more first-hand experience with the type of bodies theyre
likely to frequently work on in their career. However, the practical side of things still
rules the day at present, though many institutions are starting to transition to bigger tables
and particularly loosening their guidelines on weight restriction on accepted bodies. As professor Heymsfield goes on to state,
I dont think you need a room full of obese cadavers, but I still think theres
a usefulness for students. I think to give them a sense of what the effects
of obesity can be on a persons body.
Theres nothing like the real thing..
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