Body donation

Body donation, anatomical donation, or body bequest is the donation of a whole body after death for research and education. Donated bodies are mostly used for medical education and research. They are used for gross anatomy, surgical anatomy, and for furthering medical education. For years, only medical schools accepted bodies for donation, but now private programs also accept donors. Depending on the programs need for body donation, some programs accept donors with different specifications.

Body donation is important for understanding the human body and for making advancements in science. Medical schools use whole embalmed bodies to teach anatomy to medical students. There is no cost to donating a body to science; the donation program will often provide a stipend and/or cover the cost of cremation or burial once the cadaver has served its purpose and is returned to the family for interment. Any person wishing to donate their body may do so through a willed body program. They may be required, but not always, to make prior arrangements with the local medical school, university, or body donation program before death. Individuals may request a consent form and will be supplied information about policies and procedures that will take place after the potential donor is deceased.

Body donation is still relatively low, therefore in attempts to increase these donations, many countries have different programs and differing regulations surrounding the donation of the body or body parts. Within the United States, and for academic-based programs, a person must make the decision to donate their remains themselves prior to death, the decision cannot be made by a power of attorney. If a person decides not to donate their whole body, or they are unable to, there are other forms of donation in which one can contribute their body to science after death. These include: organ donation and tissue donation.

Body donation in the UK is governed by the Human Tissue Authority (HTA) under the auspices of the Human Tissue Act 2004. The HTA licenses and inspects establishments, such as medical schools, which teach anatomy using donated bodies. Under the Human Tissue Act, written consent must be given prior to death; consent cannot be given by anyone else after death. The minimum age to consent to donate your body in the UK is 17.

The Human Tissue Authority provides information to donors about where they can donate and answers many prevalent questions related to tissue donation on their website. The Human Tissue Authority provides the links to each establishment’s information, but each establishment has its own guidelines for body donation. The HTA also provides the tools to find donation sites local to the person wishing to donate their body, or tissues.

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Wikipedia