I have heard that an organ donor’s estate is charged for the cost of removing the body parts. Is this true? If yes what is the going rate?
I cant believe that an any harvesting hospital would be charging the family for the procedure. I can say with full confidence that if you donate your body to the UNM school of medicine at time of death they take care of all the bills surrounding your death, and your cremated body will be returned to your family in 2-5 years
Why so long?
AngelicSuccubus, as strange as it may sound, they sometimes get a backlog of bodies. As a guess, they may want each anatomy class to be familiar with different body types, so they may adjust the “mix” of cadavers in the lab.
The policies of donating a cadaver to a med school vary widely. I called around after my dad died (trying to beat out a funeral home that wanted to charge one thousand dollars to “prepare” him for the schools. :mad: ) One school wanted the deceased to sign a consent form; another wanted the body within four hours of death. UTMB in Galveston had only one question: “Was he obese?” We did have to pay about two hundred dollars for shipping from Maryland to Texas.
None of the above applies to the OP, of course. Med school cadavers and organ donations are two separate things. Personally, I doubt that they could bill the estate, considering that there’s no one who could agree to pay the bill.
I would think that if any charges were billed, they would bill the recipients, not the donor or his family.
Authoriative answer: No
From the OP:
It is very important for as many people as possible to understand that ORGAN DONATION IS FREE!!, at least in the U.S. and Canada and most of the rest of the civilized world. Receiving an organ is not free, and the recipient, his/her health insurance, or his/her governmental health program will have to pay the medical costs. Receiving an organ may or may not be quite expensive depending on the insurance coverage and the type of transplant. The U.S. government will cover the cost of certain kinds of transplants.
I state the above with 100% certainty. I am an organ transplant recipient (kidney in 1991) and as a matter of course I keep close track of this sort of thing. I have volumes and volumes of cites if anyone really cares for some.
The reason it is important for people to be aware? There is a deadly shortage of organs. Thousands of people die every year due to lack of available organs. Organ transplantation is now well established medically, and for many conditions is the only chance of life. I believe that everyone should be encouraged to donate their organs. Therefore, I believe in combating myths, misinformation, and misunderstand of how the process works. Donation is an act that has absolutely no cost and immeasurable benefit.
5 years of dialysis: $100,000
10 years of insulin: $10,000
donating an organ: FREE
receiving the gift of life: PRICELESS
-m