# Are you quite done with Alistair Cooke's femur? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 31, 2006, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-quite-done-with-alistair-cookes-femur/342338 "2006-01-31T12:56:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2006, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-quite-done-with-alistair-cookes-femur/342338/1 "2006-01-31T12:56:54Z")
[Here’s a rather grisly news story.](http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/0130body-parts-ON.html) Apparently, dozens of funeral homes in New York City have been extracting skin, bones, and teeth from cadavers without permission, and selling the material to hospitals for transplants. Aistair Cooke, of Masterpiece Theater fame, is one of the people who was desacrated. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2006, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-quite-done-with-alistair-cookes-femur/342338/2 "2006-01-31T13:02:10Z")
Yep. That story is the sequel to what was linked to [here.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=350795) ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2006, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-quite-done-with-alistair-cookes-femur/342338/3 "2006-01-31T13:05:00Z")
Somewhat freaky that the FDA spokesman was named Stephen King. This story does not make me look forward to my future days either as an old guy needing a transplant or as an unwilling donor after I die. And I doubt that it could help to ask for a cremation since there’s no one to make sure that the undertakers actually do so. Remember the funeral home in Georgia that was just chucking the bodies out back? ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2006, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-quite-done-with-alistair-cookes-femur/342338/4 "2006-01-31T13:08:38Z")
Of course the guy in Georgia was being paid to cremate them. So asking to be toasted does not ensure you will be. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2006, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-quite-done-with-alistair-cookes-femur/342338/5 "2006-01-31T13:18:56Z")
> [@](#): > > Alistair Cooke died of cancer at age 95 in March 2004. He wanted to be cremated, and harbored a horror of being cut open. His daughter, a pastor in Vermont, said district attorney’s investigators contacted her recently to say they had discovered forged papers, allegedly signed by Cooke’s family, allowing his bones and tissue to be removed. Investigators said they had evidence his body parts had been implanted in patients but declined to provide details. … and this may be the least disturbing part of the linked article. I just can’t get over the extent of the desecration and the absolute dearth of conscience by those involved. I’ve got to make sure that my wife, who received donor bone for back surgery a couple of years ago, doesn’t see this. It’s one thing to think a young, viable and willing donor was involved, but this… ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2006, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-quite-done-with-alistair-cookes-femur/342338/6 "2006-01-31T13:22:54Z")
> [@Paul in Saudi](#): > > So asking to be toasted does not ensure you will be. Toasted, Cooked, whatever… ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2006, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-quite-done-with-alistair-cookes-femur/342338/7 "2006-01-31T14:12:28Z")
who was the rock guy (Graham Parsons?) whose friends took his dead body and lit him up like a bonfire somewhere in California in the early 70’s? Those are true friends. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2006, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-quite-done-with-alistair-cookes-femur/342338/8 "2006-01-31T14:14:19Z")
Also, if more people weren’t so ooogie about donating body parts after they croak, stuff like this wouldn’t happen. ---
**Author:** ![Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Man_With_a_Cat)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2006, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-quite-done-with-alistair-cookes-femur/342338/9 "2006-01-31T14:19:12Z")
> [@Shirley Ujest](#): > > who was the rock guy (Graham Parsons?) whose friends took his dead body and lit him up like a bonfire somewhere in California in the early 70’s? > > Those are true friends. Right name, wrong spelling. Gram. And bow your head when you say his name, just fabulous music. He’s all over my I-Tunes. [A sample link](http://www.gramparsons.com/)