To want to donate my body for scientific research

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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?

What Aitch said. I used to live with a couple of docs. NO WAY I'd donate my body to medical research.

Organs, take 'em all. Corneas, long bone, skin, too. Whatever can be used. I won't need it wherever I'm going.

and if there's nothing to be used I'm certainly not letting some med students cut me up.

I'm registered for Organ donation (they've got another 9 years to make use of them) and have filled out my form for Bone Marrow donation, didn't know you could do Brain donation but as my Grandad's currently suffering from dementia, I might look into that too...

Why wouldn't you let med students cut you up Expat? Surely they can't do anything too awful to the bodies?

i dunno, while they are all very respectful in the anatomy rooms, this is not the case when they're back in their digs, drunk, and talking about fannies with their pals.

There is no specific age cut off for organ donation - it's all done on the basis of how healthy your specific organs are.

And even if you are old old, they can still use your corneas, bone and skin, which are desperatly needed too - it's not just about solid organ donation.

No worse than ex boyfriends drunk and talking about fannies with their pals then.

I'd like to do it. If it potentially helped someone in the future then why not.

mmmm. no, it's worse. believe me.

It didn't sound as though they were even that respectful in class to me (particularly with fat for some reason).

Although tbh I don't much think I'd like to be with a bloke that got drunk and talked about fannies either.

i just remember this one conversation abuot a, you've guessed it, fat woman and her apparently rather distended pudenda... made me think nope, not for me. and yes, i think i may have been being generous when i said they were respectful in the anatomy rooms, i really meant 'in plain sight of the lecturer'.

my pals used to take wimpy arts students like me in to the anatomy rooms, to see which one would barf first. an amazing sight, to be fair, but the nicknames were awful.

yanbu necessarily but you do need to consider what happens if your body is rejected. My dad's uncle donated his body to scientific research (I don't know what exactly) but they rejected it after he'd died and his family were left to organize a funeral which they had not been prepared for at all.

YANBU to want to donate your body, very good thing to do IMO.

But legally any wishes you put in your will are not binding. There is no legal ownership of a body, but it is for your executors to decide how to dispose of you (if you will). Please discuss with your appointed executors that these are your wishes and make sure anyone likely to kick off about it is informed that it is your choice, otherwise you risk that (a) they will ignore what you have asked for (and there's nothing anyone can do about that as funeral wishes are just that - wishes, not legally binding instructions) and/or (b) it will cause a lot of ructions after your death. And believe me (former probate solicitor) it is easy enough for death to cause family divisions without any fuel being added to the fire. The main thing that seems to help is for the person to discuss things with their family and any other affected people well in advance. That's my experience anyway, for what it's worth.

YANBU.

it's exactly what i want to do.
it's one way of trying to reduce the amount of animals used in medical research...
although, obviouosly, most of the bodies donated go to be cadavers in medical schools!

i am a bit torn, though, because i want to donate organs too, and i think the rule is that you can't be taken for medical research if you've got any bits missing..

flock my father died last year, he had Parkinsons but he attempted suicide which ultimately led to his death some weeks later.

He had always been very interested in the work the PDS did and how they could progress with their research.

When they asked if they could remove his brain for post mortem we agreed and then we had the option of having it destroyed, waiting 6 weeks for cremation of whole body (inc brain) or dontaing it to medical science.

We took the last option obviously, I know its what he would have wanted if it meant just one person with PD could be helped it would be worth it.

Having been present at a post morten, you might as well give everything away you can, because it doent all go back where it used to be

what aitch said. hell, you should have heard the nicknames some of them had for living patients outside earshot, much less the cadavers.

YANBU.

Have you considered donating to Gunter Von Hagens' "BodyWorlds"? He plasticises the bodies and displays them - they are fantastic for learning anatomy from, when I was a physio student we ran a bus-trip to view the exhibition, as recommended by the tutors.

They can use bodies which have also donated organs, as they mostly remove organs anyway, the better to display the muscles/nerves etc. The age you are when you die is also less of an issue.

I'd quite like to donate my skeleton for physio training but there doesn't seem to be any way to do that at present.

I think it is a bold move and I have huge respect for anyone that wants to help future generations that way.

I've worked with donated bodies as a police professional at a university and I have to say, the most important thing as far as the staff were concerned was that the bodies were treated with absolute dignity and respect. The prof in charge, who was lovely but I wouldn't cross her, called them her 'silent staff'.

Anyone got any ideas on how to go about registering to do this?

yanbu. I'm going to do it (must add it to my will actually, although all my family know) and my dad has it in his will.

And my sister had to study bodies at uni so we know what we're getting into.

This is who DH and I spoke to, you need to be fairly local though- www.pdn.cam.ac.uk/doc/donate.html