My "Donate My Body To Science" Thing

Hopefully these will show you, but these 2 pics are the back and front of one’s registration cards Science Care will send you once you sign up.

Suggested tat: "Am I really dead? Please check! :slight_smile:

Q

Please excuse the blurred photo - got too close.

Interesting. I’d like to see more people donating their remains to useful purposes. Short of soylent green, anyway.

I’m an organ donor, and I did make mention of wanting to donate my remains in my living will/advance directive, but I haven’t actually signed up with any organizations like Science Care. Should I be doing something like that?

Well, I did it because I didn’t want my wife to have to bear the expense of a funeral, but you bring up an interesting point: I too am an organ donor, so I may have to quit being one to keep some medical student from getting just a “shell” of me. :slight_smile:

Q

The way I figure it, any worthy organs will be far more valuable to their recipients, and my body’s value as a training dummy or research material will only be partially reduced with some missing parts.

My wife and I found it seems virtually impossible to donate a female body over about 225lb or so (Varies from place to place.). Curiously the weight limit on men is a bit higher. This was discussed here. I can look it up if you wish.

I was just looking into body farms the other day. Unfortunately, for most of them you have to pay to ship your remains. But at SIU, after you rot, they clean up and articulate your skeleton. Tho friends and family can’t visit you “down on the farm”, they can stop by and check out yer bones!

Think I’m going to have to sign myself up!

Supposedly you can still hang out on the farm after donating your juicy bits. Gonna have to look into that some more…

My parents years ago donated their bodies to the local university. They often boasted about how they had saved us all the trouble and cost of a funeral. In large part this was because neither of them liked the idea of funerals at all.

As it turned out when they died, although a year apart, dead bodies were a glut on the marketplace and the university had no room left to store them. We honored their wishes by not having a formal funeral but still had to pay for the costs of cremation.

I mentioned this thread to my wife, and she’s found that the Mayo Clinic has a form you can fill out, an “anatomical bequest to Mayo Clinic” form. The form also instructs your executor to donate your body to any similar institution should the Mayo decline your bequest for whatever reason. It undoubtedly helps if you are relatively close to there.

So, it’s not a lock that they’ll take us, but my wife and I are signing up. Hopefully we’ll be of use in death. If not, it’s not like I’ll much care at that point.

ETA: We’ll also be leaving some sort of proviso to cover any expenses, either way, in our wills, to spare our loved ones the hassle.

Obligatory ‘Organ Donor’ scene

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We need a name for those of us who are gonna do this… “Friends,
They may think it’s a MOVEMENT, and that’s what it is…” ----- Arlo Guthrie, 1967

Who’s umm… game? (get it?)

Quasi

Okay, so I’ve only got 20 years or so to get in shape.

But, seriously, it’s another good excuse – once I get to an even dozen, I might just get started!

I went ahead and reported myself for that above post about organizing ourselves. Thinking about it since posting, I’m thinking that it may have come out mean-spirited and offensive to some of us who are taking this step. Sorry…

With me, sarcasm and satire go hand in hand sometimes.

Quasi

For what it’s worth, I didn’t take it mean-spirited in the least. Quite the contrary.