How To Donate Your Body to Science
Mar. 16th, 2012 10:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
neadodsI'm not kidding; that is the topic of this post. (I'm in an estate-planning state of mind and think this topic is VERY important.)
If you want to donate your body to science - and there's an excellent book titled STIFF by Mary Roach that discusses what happens to the corpses - you need to plan in advance, because this has to be set up by you while you're still around to do the job.
If you have a specific hospital or research center in mind, talk to them directly regarding their rules and needs; their requirements will supersede anything I say here.
If you just generally want to donate your body, you need to find your State Anatomy Board* and ask them to send you donation forms. You fill out a rather detailed set of forms regarding your background, race, and health, and send 'em back. You get to specify if you want your body returned to someone (and if it needs to be returned in viewable condition) or if it should just be cremated and dealt with by them. There's also a card for you to sign and carry with the Anatomy Board's contact info; mine's just behind my driver's license, where it will hopefully be seen by anyone pulling out the license at the scene of an accident.
My estate notebook starts with a page saying "I have donated my body blah blah contact info."
I also have a living will & medical power of attorney, and if y'all are squicking at the idea of donating your body, then at least, for the sake of your family and friends, have these. My medical power of attorney haa a cascade, so that if whatever gets me also gets the first person on the list, it doesn't become worthless. The living will has a specific codicil: basically I ask for resuscitation *IF* I would have a certain quality of life, but if resuscitation would mean permanent pain or severe mental disablement, the doctors and my medical executor are to pull every plug they can lay their hands on.
I refuse to be the next Terri Schiavo.
*For U.S. citizens, obviously. For everyone else, best I can offer is "Google 'donate body to science.'" You're still likely going to need to do the donating while you're still breathing.
If you want to donate your body to science - and there's an excellent book titled STIFF by Mary Roach that discusses what happens to the corpses - you need to plan in advance, because this has to be set up by you while you're still around to do the job.
If you have a specific hospital or research center in mind, talk to them directly regarding their rules and needs; their requirements will supersede anything I say here.
If you just generally want to donate your body, you need to find your State Anatomy Board* and ask them to send you donation forms. You fill out a rather detailed set of forms regarding your background, race, and health, and send 'em back. You get to specify if you want your body returned to someone (and if it needs to be returned in viewable condition) or if it should just be cremated and dealt with by them. There's also a card for you to sign and carry with the Anatomy Board's contact info; mine's just behind my driver's license, where it will hopefully be seen by anyone pulling out the license at the scene of an accident.
My estate notebook starts with a page saying "I have donated my body blah blah contact info."
I also have a living will & medical power of attorney, and if y'all are squicking at the idea of donating your body, then at least, for the sake of your family and friends, have these. My medical power of attorney haa a cascade, so that if whatever gets me also gets the first person on the list, it doesn't become worthless. The living will has a specific codicil: basically I ask for resuscitation *IF* I would have a certain quality of life, but if resuscitation would mean permanent pain or severe mental disablement, the doctors and my medical executor are to pull every plug they can lay their hands on.
I refuse to be the next Terri Schiavo.
*For U.S. citizens, obviously. For everyone else, best I can offer is "Google 'donate body to science.'" You're still likely going to need to do the donating while you're still breathing.
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no subject
Date: 2012-03-16 05:38 pm (UTC)Exactly!