# What happens to unclaimed corpses?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-unclaimed-corpses/367379>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 4, 2006, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-unclaimed-corpses/367379 "2006-08-04T19:44:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\
**Post date:** [August 4, 2006, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-unclaimed-corpses/367379/1 "2006-08-04T19:44:35Z")

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What happens when a dead body is never “claimed” by relatives or the next of kin won’t pay for it’s final disposition? Are they cremated? Buried in a mass grave? Given to medical schools?

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**Author:** ![Rube\_E.Tewesday](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f0a364/32.png) [@Rube\_E.Tewesday](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rube_E.Tewesday)\
**Post date:** [August 4, 2006, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-unclaimed-corpses/367379/2 "2006-08-04T19:55:25Z")

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Depending on the jurisdiction, probably any or all of the possibilities you mention. A while ago I saw a documentary, set, I think, in Los Angeles. It showed a mass burial of the cremated remains of unclaimed corpses from, I think, something like a three or four year period. On the other hand, I’m pretty sure that I’ve read that in NYC, unclaimed bodies are buried in a potter’s field by prisoners from Riker’'s Island.

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**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\
**Post date:** [August 4, 2006, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-unclaimed-corpses/367379/3 "2006-08-04T19:57:50Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> Many states protect unclaimed bodies by contracting with funeral homes, which then assume burial responsibilities. New York, for instance, requires counties to bury anyone who cannot afford burial costs, a policy that has caused cadaver shortages for local medical schools, including Columbia University. However, some states, including Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Texas, automatically turn over unclaimed bodies to legislatively established state anatomy boards, whose sole objective is to support medical education and services. In Maryland, for example, where the state anatomy board was created in 1974, willing donors currently account for a little more than half of cadavers used for medical education and research study programs each year. In 2002, 40% of bodies used for study in Maryland were unclaimed bodies, individuals who died in a hospital and were not claimed by any friend or relative for 72 hours.

Source: [http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/291/1/122](http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/291/1/122)

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**Author:** ![Mehitabel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mehitabel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mehitabel)\
**Post date:** [August 5, 2006, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-unclaimed-corpses/367379/4 "2006-08-05T04:05:51Z")

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[NYC](http://www.correctionhistory.org/html/chronicl/hart/twomey/twomey01.html), as mentioned before, buries them in my borough on Hart Island. I’ve driven by that ferry slip and it is just soooo sad.