# What do you want done with your body when you die? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 9, 2013, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-done-with-your-body-when-you-die/675890 "2013-12-09T14:08:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-done-with-your-body-when-you-die/675890/101 "2013-12-12T19:50:29Z")
> [@Mr.Excellent](#): > > And if science, medicine, and educators don’t need a body, they can decline it. That’s fair enough. But to deny them to right of first refusal seems absurd. Yes, I’d have much preferred an actual human body to dissect in 10th grade biology class than that poor cat they gave us. Maybe I would have had a better appreciation of keeping myself in good shape if I thought that youngsters were going to be checking me out and passing judgement on me. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-done-with-your-body-when-you-die/675890/102 "2013-12-12T19:52:51Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Are they supposed to vote? Do you leave your corpse to a specific person in your will so they might choose the means of disposal? I’ve left instructions to make it an IMHO poll. ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-done-with-your-body-when-you-die/675890/103 "2013-12-12T20:08:00Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > I kind of like the idea of giving my corpse to an artist for something … artistic. Then Joel-Peter Witkin is your man. More scientific, but very artistic, are the folks on display in The Body Exhibition. Some of them are very nicely done. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-done-with-your-body-when-you-die/675890/104 "2013-12-12T20:41:17Z")
> [@bup](#): > > I’ll do it. Good man, good man. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-done-with-your-body-when-you-die/675890/105 "2013-12-12T20:41:53Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > _Medicine_ I see. But is there a shortage of bodies needed for educational and/or scientific purposes that I’m not aware of? I don’t have a cite, but I do recall reading claims some years back that there were shortages of bodies for colleges and med schools to use for anatomy classes. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-done-with-your-body-when-you-die/675890/106 "2013-12-12T20:42:42Z")
> [@Mr.Excellent](#): > > And if science, medicine, and educators don’t need a body, they can decline it. That’s fair enough. But to deny them to right of first refusal seems absurd. If there’s ever a shortage of bodies for gross anatomy classes, then a few well-placed PSA’s should help ease the shortage. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2013, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-done-with-your-body-when-you-die/675890/107 "2013-12-12T21:32:59Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Are they supposed to vote? Do you leave your corpse to a specific person in your will so they might choose the means of disposal? Back in another lifetime, I took a trusts-and-estates course en route to being a paralegal. We were advised that your will was no place to be leaving instructions about the disposition of your body, since there was no expectation in law or custom that anyone would be reviewing your will before you were buried/cremated/whatever. That was back in 1977, so things may have changed since. But I doubt that there’s an ironclad way, in the U.S. at least, for the decedent to overrule the wishes of his/her survivors with respect to the body’s disposition, no matter what arrangements the decedent makes before kicking the bucket. They’re there, and the dead person isn’t. ---
**Author:** ![DummyGladHands](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/49beb7/32.png) [@DummyGladHands](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DummyGladHands)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2013, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-done-with-your-body-when-you-die/675890/108 "2013-12-13T02:57:26Z")
> [@](#): > > Yes, your loved ones are behaving irrationally if they can’t stomach the idea of your body being used as a crash test dummy, but making your remains be disposed of how your friends and family wish is still not selfish. That’s true, My late husband donated and it was very very hard. Very hard. I tried to talk him out of it, but he was so adamant. I still have the donation paperwork, on which he wrote that anyone who doesn’t donate is a cretin. (His opinion, no mine) But as time goes on I find it to be the best thing in terms of healing. No funeral, no wake, no burial, no grave site visitations etc. YMMV ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2013, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-done-with-your-body-when-you-die/675890/109 "2013-12-13T03:48:14Z")
I’d like it if someone remembered me to a gathering of family who wasn’t family. I’d like it if maybe even three things that I’ve written, if they were good, if they made people smile, could be shared with them. “…yes, he was an ugly, ugly man who was ridiculed and bullied relentlessly his whole life for how he looked. But somewhere in that body, something rose above… and thought up this.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-want-done-with-your-body-when-you-die/675890.md?page=5)