What's Involved in Donating Your Body to Science: What You May and May Not Know

SaoirseS u
Science can benefit from your mortal remains after youre done with them.
Science can benefit from your mortal remains after you're done with them.

FOREWORD: To prevent confusion, this MyTake pertains only to WHOLE BODY donations, not organ donations. It only applies to those living in the United States, although in practice much applies to other countries as well. Even within the US, there are some differences between states.

The final disposition of one’s remains is a personal choice, often relayed to a funeral home by surviving family members. There are people who want to donate their whole bodies to science for things like medical research, forensic anthropology, educating art students, training cadaver dogs, etc. These selfless people see the value in giving to research after they are gone for the advancement of medicine and other purposes. That’s the noble purpose, but when you get down to it, the REAL reason is usually to relieve the family of the hassle and financial burden of making (and paying for) final arrangements. I definitely understand that. I get the appeal of “sticking it to the man (or woman)” and if I were you I’d look for ways to stick it to me too. Dying isn’t cheap here, and any dollar you can deny the wretched undertaker can better be spent on luxuries in life (like food and gasoline). So if you want to donate your mortal remains after death for research, it’s really not difficult to do, but the key things to remember are: 1) the donation must be PREARRANGED; 2) you have to meet and maintain certain eligibility criteria; 3) the facility you choose for donation will always have a refusal rights clause written into the contract, meaning 4) you need to have a Plan B; and 5) it’s still going to cost your survivors, so plan for money from your estate to cover those costs. In many states, you will need to use the services of a funeral home to handle the logistics, and you definitely aren’t going to get by without the local tax man grabbing a few bucks.

PREARRANGING A DONATION: This is absolutely the most critical consideration, for without a prearrangement and necessary paperwork, a whole body donation is simply not going to happen. There are some exceptions that pertain to cases where the state becomes the ward of a person’s remains, but they don’t really apply here. That means getting your prearrangement in order NOW (if you want to up the chances your body donation will go through), or at least start thinking about it and planning to do it when you hit middle age.

FINDING A FACILITY: The best place to start is checking the nearest university medical school or forensic science research facility. Many have FAQs, eligibility criteria, and all you need to know about making your body available to them after death. Most have downloadable/printable application forms, along with all the legal disclaimers. Just follow the instructions, and submit the forms to register with the facility. There are seven “body farms” scattered throughout the US, all have pretty easy-to-use instructions on how to register and what they can and can’t do for you. You can also ask your doctor, and quite a few nurses can probably point you in the right direction. But again, the singular most important thing is for YOU to make the prearrangements before your death. You’ll need to involve your family (or survivors) so they know your wishes. Also, if the donor form contains a provision for disposition of your remains (cremation or burial) once the research facility is done with them, strange as it sounds it’s your family that will have to sign the burial or cremation authorization. In brief, you’re the decisionmaker regarding donation, your next-of-kin are the legal decisionmakers regarding final disposition. Weird how the law works in some states.

JUST BECAUSE YOU WANT TO DONATE DOESN’T MEAN THEY WANT YOU: Each facility has disqualifying criteria, and they vary between facilities. However, what most all have in common is they will not accept a whole body donation if at the time of death you’re severely overweight, severely underweight (emaciated), have HIV/AIDS, have ever had Hepatitis, been autopsied, had life-sustaining organs harvested for organ donations, or more recently were COVID positive at the time of death. Some facilities’ criteria read like they want ideally a perfect specimen, and if you meet them you probably shouldn’t be dead. If your situation changes (you were fine when you made the arrangement but died in an emaciated condition, for example), they can and will refuse to accept your whole body donation. If anyone in the next of kin objects and so notifies the gaining facility, they will refuse to accept you (presumably to avoid lawsuits and bad publicity). Any facility can exercise its right to refuse at any time; quite often it’s because they’re at capacity and aren’t accepting any whole body donations at the time. You can withdraw your prearranged authorization at any time, but be aware, your family can refuse to honor your wishes and withdraw it at any time after your death as well so be nice to your next-of-kin. For these reasons, you need to have a fallback plan, so make sure your next-of-kin knows your Plan B.

YOUR SURVIVORS ARE MOST PROBABLY GOING TO NEED TO USE A FUNERAL HOME, SO IT ISN’T GOING TO BE FREE: Most research facilities will not pick up remains directly from a place of death, and require you use a funeral home for some preparation of remains, transportation, processing of permits and the death certificate. Most medical facilities will only release to a research facility if all the preparations have been made in advance, but it’s rare that it ever works out. Care facilities are used to notifying and arranging removal with funeral homes so it’s part of their routine and standing procedures. Again, most whole body donations require use of a funeral home, so the chances of you and your family totally avoiding the wretched undertaker are slim. I’m aware there are a few nationwide services that claim they’ll handle every little detail from time of death (at absolutely no cost to you and your family!) but if you read the fine print it never works out that way. Nothing in life, or even death, is free.

PLAN B: Here’s a scenario most every funeral director has faced, or will face. Fred dies, the funeral home picks up Fred’s remains from the place of death, and at the family conference the first thing said is “This is all a mistake. Fred didn’t want a funeral, he wanted his body donated to science so I need you to make that happen.” Fred’s remains are in my facility because either a) he didn’t prearrange a donation (the most common), or b) he had a prearrangement but the facility refused to accept him because they were at capacity, or for some other reason. Shopping around for a facility that will accept the donation stands a zero to nil chance of working out. You’re stuck here, so what we have to figure out is what we’re going to do with Fred’s remains, which usually ends up being direct cremation with no funeral or merchandise.

COMMON COSTS FOR A WHOLE BODY DONOR CASE: Assuming the donation is accepted and you need a funeral home to handle the logistics, there will be several reasonable charges that will add up quickly. In my area, they will add up to around $2,500-3,000. They’re unavoidable, and if it costs the funeral home, the cost gets passed on to you. Common costs include removal charges (transportation of remains from place of death to the funeral home), transport to donation facility, sheltering and preparation of remains, administrative costs associated with obtaining permits and the death certificate, and a modest professional service fee to cover overhead.

So if you plan on donating your whole body to science, start planning.

What's Involved in Donating Your Body to Science: What You May and May Not Know
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