Body to medical science

Both my parents did this, but only my father was accepted on his death. I don’t know why.

I can’t see any reason not to do it. If you can do some good after your death, why not?

They don’t necessarily accept you though, and I believe that when you die, even if you’ve signed up for it, if they have enough cadavers, you are rejected.

If you like the idea then why not? But at the same time, we wouldn’t want our loved ones to be upset by it.

It is a very hard thing to have to give up a person you love, to let their body go you know not where. My mother had arranged this and we were bearing up to let her go when we were told she had not been accepted. It was a huge relief to me. I had a need to 'make sure she was looked after and safe' even when she was dead that would not have been met if she had been taken away.

This is possibly silly and almost certainly selfish I know, but at that awful time to let her go would have been another pain for me to bear. It might be something to consider.

I was requested to look into this by our dying auntie. I did there was no guarantee they would accept the body.
If they do accept the body and it is a big if when they had extracted the parts they would use. It was up to us to deal with the remains. I really did research it out of respect but refused to pursue it.
Things may have changed since then ten years ago but it’s definitely something I would pass on.

My husband had organised this for himself, he was very keen to be of some use after his death. If you die at the end of the week you need to have made arrangements for your body to be kept ‘safe’ over the weekend. As it turned out he died of covid and his body was not wanted.

I haven’t signed for any parts of my body to be used as I was so disappointed when my doctor advised me against becoming a blood donor. This was because I had poor health and needed to take medication, even my eyes would not be acceptable. I was very upset and downcast to think ‘I was no good’!

My father had wanted his body to be given for medical science. I agreed because this was what he wanted.
But when he actually died they didn't want his body. I have to tell you I felt such an enormous sense of relief. Even though this was 17 years ago the sense of relief is still very strong.

I didn’t feel relief when they didn’t accept my mother. We didn’t want a funeral, and neither did she, but we had to have one. We didn’t know about simple or direct cremations then.

When my father died and he was accepted, then we felt relief. We had a big family lunch to celebrate his life.

Both my parents and an aunt donated their bodies. All knew years in advance and were happy with decision. In Ireland, where I live, I haven’t heard of people being rejected because they have enough bodies. You can’t be an organ donor as well, or be missing bits - like leg amputated. My mother had lost an eye to cancer but still wanted to donate her body so she regularly said to me - “don’t tell them about the eye”. I often wondered what medical student was instructed to dissect the eye and found it was glass!

For each of my parents, we had a memorial service in the church, without the coffin, and when the bodies were finally finished with, there was a simple burial in a medical school plot in cemetery. Didn’t cost us anything as med school paid.

I donated mine years ago. The family can have the body back after 3 years. I asked my daughter if she would bother: nah, was her answer ?