Donating your body to science trains the doctors who will treat your grandchildren

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.suntimes.com/news/steinberg/8032353-452/must-religion-trump-medicine-forever.html

Must religion trump medicine forever?

BY NEIL STEINBERG [e-mail] October 4, 2011 6:10PM

When a pauper is buried, there is not a lot of ceremony — no riderless horse, no mourners draped in black crepe, no white-gloved pallbearers, no casket at all. The sack shrouded body is tossed into a pit with a minimum of fuss — a few brief words, if someone remembers; a few shovelfuls of quicklime, then the backhoe does its work.

I have never seen such a burial, but I believe this is a generally accurate description.

What I have seen, several times, is an anatomy class, where bodies often end up when they are donated to science — at least as performed at Loyola University Medical Center’s Stritch School of Medicine — and as far as genuine respect, real spirituality and sincere ceremony are concerned, I’d wager money that the med school anatomy class tops the potter’s field burial hands down. They have a priest. They have prayers. The students read poetry and thank the cadavers, speaking of the lips that kissed, the hands that held, the eyes that gazed to heaven. snip

Donating your body to science trains the doctors who will treat your grandchildren. It’s a person’s very last chance to do something constructive in this world. You would think, in that light, everybody would do it. But as our medical science roars into the 21st century, our minds, alas, linger mired in the 12th. Must they remain there forever?

[SavWriter]

1. You have to be careful

I donated my body to Science Fiction thanks to a small typo.

[Honeycombe8]

13. LOL! That was a chuckler! nt

[Odin2005]

2. K&R

[Ruby the Liberal]

3. Another option is forensic science

Granted, this isn't for everyone, but there are several schools that train forensic scientists that accept donations. For the squeemish, I won't go into how forensic scientists are trained, but anyone interested can google it up.

Here is one link to a school's forensic anthropology donation program: http://web.utk.edu/~fac/donationfaqs.html

[Hassin Bin Sober]

16. I may do that if they agree to prop me under a tree with a beer in my hand.

Couldn't hurt to ask.

[Ruby the Liberal]

18. LOL!

I am sure they get all kinds of requests. That one is a riot.

[tammywammy]

21. Have you read the book "Stiff" by Mary Roach?

Excellent book on cadavers.

I myself will donate my body, if they're unable to use my organs first.

[Ruby the Liberal]

22. Yesh - don't know if I have the stomach

but will check into it! Forensics are fascinating, gore, not so much. LOL

[tammywammy]

24. It's not really a gore filled book.

It's very interesting. :)

[Ruby the Liberal]

27. Okay then - added it to my reading list

I asked my family to consider forensic studies when I die. Will leave it up to them - after i'm gone, I really don't care.

[xmas74]

28. I have a family member

who already has it in his will that he body will be donated to the Body Farm in Tennessee.

[csziggy]

31. That's what hubby thinks I should leave my body for

With the number of injuries I have had it would be a good exercise for forensic scientists to dissect my body and see what evidence was left in the tissues. The problem is that I am not sure if my new doctor managed to get my medical records from my old doctor when he retired. And I had a good number of injuries before I started with the old one thirty four years ago!

Locally, there is not only a medical school but there is also a criminalistics program. I am not sure if they are training forensic scientists, but I should check.

[bluestateguy]

4. Can you arrange to have your body appropriately buried after they are done using it?

If so, that would make it a more attractive option.

[DesertFlower]

5. what difference does it make? you're dead.

you're not your body. when you're cremated your body lies in a vat -- sometimes for days until it is cremated.

[bluestateguy]

6. That is not point

Many people's faith calls upon them to have a proper burial.

Please respect people's faith practices, just as you would expect those of no faith to be respected too.

[DesertFlower]

11. i'm not disrespecting anyone's faith.

you can spend a fortune on a fancy funeral if that's what you want. we had to do it in my mother in law's case. she died without any money. hubby and his sister spent $10,000 giving her the funeral she wanted. as far as i'm concerned that money could have been buried in the back yard or donated to charity.

as per my mom's wishes she was cremated. cost $750. my wish is also to be cremated after they've harvested my organs.

[former9thward]

8. My father died last month and he donated his body.

After they finish using it they cremate it at their expense. They then send the cremains to the family. At least that is what the organization did that handled my father.

[xmas74]

29. I believe with the body farm in Tennessee

they will cremate your remains and then ship them back to the family to do with as they wish. I think the time frame was between two and five years, but it's been quite a while since I read the info.

With everything they do to the body cremation is about the only choice really left.

[leftstreet]

7. Donate? They can pay me for it!

Interesting article

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[mod mom]

10. I already authorized my body to science & I don't care if any

fairy tale rituals are held for it or not. Might as well do something constructive for mankind once I'm dead. :hi:

[Honeycombe8]

12. What if a body can still feel something after death?

I wonder about that, having seen a few horror movies about that. I mean...we don't REALLY know, do we?

[Auntie Bush]

14. Yes, we do know! No brain activity...no feeling.

[Honeycombe8]

19. But we don't really KNOW that for sure. It's a theory.

Since a person who doesn't have brain activity is dead, they can't tell you if they can feel pain or not.

This theory carries over to fish, since they don't have a nervous system. Therefore, they shouldn't be able to feel pain. But we don't really KNOW that. If you stick them with something, they flinch.

Besides, coroners don't test for brain activity. When you flatline is when you are declared dead.

See how creepy it gets? That's the basis for this scenario in horror movies. Ooooooooh.

(I'm only half serious. Still, makes a person think.)

[Warren DeMontague]

33. And what body DOESN'T have some pretty horrible shit happen to it after it dies?

I mean, there aren't a whole lot of good options, in that case.

[JVS]

15. No freebies for them until I get free health care.

[EdMaven]

23. I should donate my body so the medical-industrial complex can profit from it?

No thanks.

Happy to in a more egalitarian world, but that is not the world we live in.

My motto is "Nothing from me for the masters of mankind if I can help it."

[xmas74]

30. Then donate it to a forensic science program.

They'll learn quite a bit and will be able to use it during crime scene investigations.

There are other programs besides even forensics and med schools.

[EdMaven]

34. You don't understand. Those programs are part of the medical industrial complex.

The research they do helps the bottom line.

And in the totally privatized world of the future, it will only be worse.

I'll go die in the woods & let coyotes eat my bones before I'll donate them to anyone.

[UTUSN]

17. My organs are donated on my driver's license, fine, but I don't like being the live Guinea pig for

new nurses in my doctor's office. That is, there's the mature, smooth nurse who can draw blood without my ever feeling the needle, but it's like she has passed me on to the young nurses for them to practice on me. One literally tied herself into the blood pressure hoses, not to mention the many times new ones have STABBED me, missing the veins while having mastered the old excuse, "Your veins are very NARROW and they ROLLED," so they take another STAB or TWO at it. After one STABBED twice I called a halt and asked to be sent to the lab where all they do is draw blood all day long every day, and my NARROW, ROLLING veins magically held still for those lab types.

But one had a joke. When he walked in ready to stick, I said, "Are you the one who is not going to hurt me?" he replied, "No, that guy is out today. You've got ME today!1"

[Cid_B]

25. Needle day is a hoot for military types...

Every single person gets to stab and be stabbed... The 3% body fat types go fast lemme tell you...

Seen gushers, squirters, stabbers and quite a few fainters...

[Ezlivin]

20. I'm donating my body to scientology

I plan to die on Tom Cruise's front porch.

Hey, why not go out with media fireworks?

[licanes]

26. Go for it!

I am also a believer of the idea that one should think of how to be of benefit for others. Nowadays it is quite difficult to find a person who would actually freely donate their body after death as cadavers to medical students but i for one agree that it is the most practical, beneficial option rather than just get rotten in the soil, why not be of help to the future doctors who will treat the future generation As long as there is a promise of a proper burial after you get dissected and be of use, then why not! I would also willingly donate organs that can still be donated after i perish so that i could also give hope to those who need them.

[xmas74]

32. Med school is a great option

as is forensic science. They let the bodies decomp and then study the levels.

I bring this up because a family member has already promised his body to a program. After the set time frame (between two and five years) the program cremates the body and then ships it back to the family for them to do with it as they see fit.

[Warren DeMontague]

35. Then they'll be, like, "hey, you look familiar" -nt-

[joshcryer]

36. They'll get my body when they pry it out of my cold, dead, cryonics chamber.

:P

[grantcart]

37. In Thailand I attended a thank you creremony by a medical school

where they returned a body that was used by medical students for their medical training.

The cadaver was used for about three years and at the ceremony all of the students who had learned from the cadever showed up to thank the family.

They lined up gave a prostrated bow to the feet of the widow most of them in tears expressing their profound thanks.

The person who donated the body is referred to as 'head teacher' and the doctors take turns explaining how the experience had made it possible for them to become better doctors.

It was a very moving service.

The family took the body back for final cremation.

I have told my family that's what I want done.