To want to donate my body for scientific research

[flockwallpaper]

Apologies if this appears morbid, but I genuinely want to know what people think.

I am getting a will drafted and the inevitable question came up about whether I would prefer burial or cremation. I said that I wanted my tissues to be used for medical research. It just seems such a waste to me, to burn or bury my body after I die, when my tissues could be used to help find cures to debilitating medical conditions.

I was talking to a friend about it afterwards and she was horrified. She said it was bound to be upsetting for my family and she implied that I would be selfish to put them through that. Of course I will discuss it with them and if it really distressed them, I wouldn't stipulate it in my will. But her strong reaction suprised me.

So AIBU to even consider this?

hmmm. as someone who knew a lot of medical students i wouldn't fancy becoming one of their cadavers. but when if comes to organ donation i want to be chopped up and parcelled out if poss. apart from my corneas, but no fool would want my crappy corneas anyway.

I used to mix with med students too - put me off also.

YANBU - although donating your organs might be of more immediate help

I think you do get a burial / cremation afterwards anyway - and the students have to attend. With the bits that are left or that haven't been placed on the back seat of a bus with a traffic cone on top.

and there's always the chance that you might be a star of rag week...

No no no. Please do it. If this thread puts people off that otherwise might have it will be very sad. Where would we all be today if no-one ever did such a thing? Such generosity on behalf of people in the past has helped my family. Good luck to medical students - let them do whatever it takes to get them through. They saved my son's life.

There aren't many cadavers these days and apparently the ones that med students get are treated with far more respect (so I am told ).

Anyway, personally I'd have to discuss it with my family and if it really upset them I wouldn't do it, but if no massive objection then why not?

I actually have a bit of a horror about the idea of my body rotting in the ground so it's cremation for me. Would prefer dissection to burial actually.

Dh says he'll haunt me forever if I burn him. He wants to go in a box.

Oh no don't get me wrong - i couldn't agree more. i think it's an excellent idea - i was just being flippant (and making the point that your rellies will get to attend a memorial for you).

When my Dmum's cousin died aged 12 of Leukaemia in 1950 his dad donated his body for research. Who knows how many children's lives may have been saved because of him .

we get quite a few people asking about this at work and I know from the chaplains that the remains are handled with a great deal of dignity.

Thanks for your comments so far.

This is the type of thing I had in mind, rather than donating for use by medical students. Our local medical school can't accept cadavers if organs have been donated and I'm on the organ donation register so I discounted that option.

CrowAndAlice, what a sad story, but what a positive thing to do.

YANBU. DH and I recently looked into this but because I am on the organ donor register list and the Parkinsons brain donor register, Cambridge uni said there would be nothing left for the students to tinker with so it would be pointless .

Maybe you could canvas opinions at your next family gathering. I told my relatives about signing up to the brain donor register and after all the expected jokes they all said what a good idea they thought it was.

I've got in contact with the local uni, and am on the list for the medical students to mess with.

Although I'd rather donate organs, and that takes priority - the uni have accepted me on that basis - although there is quite a long list of things they don't want you to die of, if you see what I mean.

My family don't mind.

One of my students (I'm a teacher) has told me that I'm not allowed to die before she gets to med school because finding me in the dissection room would freak her out.

The medical students are absolutely not allowed to take pieces onto the bus, but to be honest it really wouldn't bother me if they did (me being dead at this point).

I'm a medical student. I think that you are considering a wonderful thing - it's because of people like you that I get the honour of learning anatomy in such a unique way and the gift you give really is a long reaching one.

I can assure you that the students in my med school show nothing but the deepest respect for the cadavers. We've had to write a reflective piece about our experience and will be attending a memorial service soon, with the chance to meet the relatives.

So yanbu - thank you!

OK, must read thread before posting! Whatever you choose to do, I think that it is really great thing - shame that more people do not consider it.

Instructions about what to do with your body probably need to be duplicated/told to the relevant people/your GP rather than just being left in your will as it's possible no one will go looking for the will immediately after your death.

I don't feel able to leave family/friends unable to bury my body [I don't think it's unreasonable, but I don't think I could currently do it] so am not donating my body for medical research, but consider it generally a good and worthwhile thing to do. If at some point in my life I don't have any close family/friends, I might change my mind.

yanbu

TBH, if you die when you're old, they won't want your organs anyway (the cut off is around 40 I think- hopefully roomforthree can confirm) because there's no point in putting a 70 year old heart into a 30 year old donor patient.

Therefore, you could have a donor card and still will your body to medical research. Depending on when you die, you are either an organ donor or a medical student's practical.

There's a really good book called Stiff about what happens to corpses donated to medical research (although American based).

Some end up being used as crash test dummies, some decapitated for med students to practises facelifts on - all sorts of things that aren't as simple as med student dissection.

Fascinating reading but I'll stick to organ donation I think. Good on you for considering it though - someone's got to!

YANBU. I thought that the use of cadavers was decreasing with computer use. FWIU, fewer and fewer actual bodies have given way to scanned stuff.
As the other posters have said, make sure that it's all written down. I had an experience when a man I was caring for died and his family (scummy) arrived at the hospital, took his jewellery then said he wanted his body to be given to medical science. Being a teaching hospital this shouldn't have been a problem. Unfortunately he was too old and hadn't made arrangments prior to his death. The family were really angry (more to do with money than anything else)

You are all raising some good points, so thankyou. I have some more thinking to do, and discussion with my family at the next gathering!

Arctic fox, that's interesting. If the age cut off for organs donated for transplant is around 40 years old then mine will soon be on the scrap heap , so maybe I might as well talk to the medical school about donating my body, if it isn't too decrepit by them

Karen, I think you are right that I need to let my nearest and dearest know my wishes, as by the time anyone reaches for the will, the time limit for tissue donation may have passed. The brain bank want tissue within 24 hours of your passing.

decrepit for them to accept

I'd like to be pickled. in a big jar.

Then eccentrica you should get yourself to Thailand as soon as you know your end is approaching. There is a medical museum attached to a hospital with the most bizarre collection including the biggest selection of conjoined twins in glass jars and a leg with elephantitis and an executed murderer standing in a roasting dish to collect the drips. I am sure they'd have room for you.