How to Donate a Body After Death for Scientific Research
Donating your body to medical research after death is a gift to the medical community. Lab simulations and classroom lectures are effective as learning tools, but neither replace the knowledge and experience gained from studying an actual human body. Making the decision to donate your body is one that should not be entered into lightly. You may have to defend the decision to family and friends. There are also legal steps that need to be taken to ensure your wishes will be carried out.
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Instructions
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Register with a local medical school or organization. Most medical schools and teaching hospitals have programs in place for donating a body for medical research. Check with the local schools and hospitals in your area. If none are available, contact the local organ donation organization and they will be able to provide you with school and organizations that accept bodies for research.
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Fill out the application packet and provide all requested medical information.
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Sign all needed request forms alerting all necessary parties of your desire to donate your body to medical research. Include the request in your will and with your personal documents.
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Make arrangements for the medical school to be alerted of your death so they can retrieve your body in a timely manner.
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Determine how your body will be handled after study. Many medical schools and state organizations arrange to have studied bodies cremated and ashes sent to the family or interred in a predetermined location.
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Tips & Warnings
Discuss your desire to donate your body with your family. Although it is your decision, your family will need to know you wishes so they can make plans for memorial services and delayed interment.
If you are an organ donor but decide to donate your body for research, you will need to remove the donor specification from all documents such as living wills, your actual will and driver's license. Most medical schools will not accept a body that is not intact.
Some organizations and research centers charge for disposal of the body after study. Make sure you research the organization's policy on body disposal after study.
