Would you ever donate your body to science?

In general, yes. If my dead body can help anyone improve their life (cannibals excluded), I'd be happy to do my part.

On the other side, if I still have living relatives and friends at that time, I want them to be ok with my decision as well. I've had my share of deaths in the family and I know that some people need to be able to mourn over someone by visiting their grave. If I get to be part of a crygogenic experiment, that might be a bit ... difficult.

Moreover, if you did donate your body, would there be something that you didn't want them to do with your body?

Weirdly enough, I'm not sure if I would donate my organs - at the present time it seems like a creepy thought. It's weird, I know ...

Some bodies are used as crash test dummies, some are farmed out for pieces for plastic surgery students to practice on.

If they do the crash test dummy part, I demand to have that mentioned on my gravestone! Anything else is ok, except the plastination part. That is just creepy and I can't see any real use in that, other than to scare the living hell out of people.

There is also a clause that would make it possible for your family to know exactly where your body went and what it was used for. If a family member donated, would you want to know what was done with them?

NO. They donate, that's their decision. But I wouldn't want to know what happened to them.

After they do with you whatever it is they are going to do with you, they cremate the rest and send it back to your family.

Great ... let's hope that, whatever they "do" it doesn't take them forever. I wouldn't want my family to mourn more than they have to ... if there's anyone left to mourn, that is ...

If you wouldn't donate your body, why? Are there religious reasons? Personal ones? Familial ones?

Science nerd.

My sister passed away last year in May. She had the contract with the Body Farm at the University of Tennessee drawn up YEARS before. She donated her entire body to the teaching hospital. There is no room for debate by the family members there. The document was signed when in "sound mind and body" and was a legal, binding contract. We, her sons, ad nauseum, had no recourse to take her body back AT ANY TIME. When they have performed all the forensic tests on her possible or necessary...the bones are stored at the McClung Museum.

All the people in my family (while they did not understand)...upheld her wishes.

I'm sorry for the loss of your sister. I think it's great what you did by honoring her wishes.

"With the kind of shape I’m in you could donate my body to science fiction."

If I didn't do it, someone else would have eventually. /wink.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=';)' />

I tell ya, No respect /laugh.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

really, I have never known anyone that has done this. So, you dont get the body back? It must be strange. Did you have a memorial service? Do you know if there were conditions to her donating? I totally get upholding her wishes without understanding. If its what she wanted, then its what you do. I commend you for respecting her wishes, even if you dont understand.

She donated because she said she didn't want people making a fuss over her when she died. We all have a mutual dislike of posthumous "to do". She also didn't want her sons to take the brunt of the expense of a funeral. She didn't want a memorial...however, my other sister (who btw tried to stop me from conveying her Will and DNR papers to the hospital) arranged a memorial many months later. I did not attend, niether did her sons. May sound harsh, but I was respecting her wishes. I have memories of my sister, some good some bad and they sustained me and allowed me to say goodbye to her without having people spewing platitudes of her "being in a better place" and how sad because "she was such a beautiful woman". Everyone grieves in a different manner.

Back on topic, The Body Farm has substantially advanced the study of Forensics Science and while I think it is creepy, the donation of bodies is very valuable to this field of study. I'm not positive about reclaiming the remains, I think they become a matter of record. On the creepy side of the topic...I have a friend who scuba dives: he used to dive for TBF in the TN river to photograph bodies in different stages of decomposition. /blink.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />

NightGoat: funny! /laugh.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':rolleyes:' />

"With the kind of shape I’m in you could donate my body to science fiction."

If I didn't do it, someone else would have eventually. /wink.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />

My sister passed away last year in May. She had the contract with the Body Farm at the University of Tennessee drawn up YEARS before. She donated her entire body to the teaching hospital. There is no room for debate by the family members there. The document was signed when in "sound mind and body" and was a legal, binding contract. We, her sons, ad nauseum, had no recourse to take her body back AT ANY TIME. When they have performed all the forensic tests on her possible or necessary...the bones are stored at the McClung Museum.

All the people in my family (while they did not understand...upheld her wishes.

That's truly amazing - your sister sounds like she was very altruistic. I agree with Born and Cowbud - good for you and your family for carrying out her wishes without understanding. I am an organ donor which my mother completely disagrees with. It's not the helping other people part that bothers her, but the me being dead part to donate my parts. I don't know that I could donate my body to science though. The people that do are very noble (I think) - we do learn so much from it.

My sister passed away last year in May. She had the contract with the Body Farm at the University of Tennessee drawn up YEARS before. She donated her entire body to the teaching hospital. There is no room for debate by the family members there. The document was signed when in "sound mind and body" and was a legal, binding contract. We, her sons, ad nauseum, had no recourse to take her body back AT ANY TIME. When they have performed all the forensic tests on her possible or necessary...the bones are stored at the McClung Museum.

All the people in my family (while they did not understand...upheld her wishes.

This is an awesome thing to do! The Body Farm is such an educational tool that helps in so many areas.

I'm glad that your family couldn't stop her donation. I mean that respectfully, I really do. But this is something she obviously wanted to do, and I'm happy that she was able to do it. I understand the reservations of the family, but it was her choice, when she was in sound mind and body, and it should have been respected.

Good on your family for not fighting it.

My sister passed away last year in May. She had the contract with the Body Farm at the University of Tennessee drawn up YEARS before. She donated her entire body to the teaching hospital. There is no room for debate by the family members there. The document was signed when in "sound mind and body" and was a legal, binding contract. We, her sons, ad nauseum, had no recourse to take her body back AT ANY TIME. When they have performed all the forensic tests on her possible or necessary...the bones are stored at the McClung Museum.

All the people in my family (while they did not understand...upheld her wishes.

really, I have never known anyone that has done this. So, you dont get the body back? It must be strange. Did you have a memorial service? Do you know if there were conditions to her donating? I totally get upholding her wishes without understanding. If its what she wanted, then its what you do. I commend you for respecting her wishes, even if you dont understand.

Thanks BA, that's sort of what I thought.

I noticed on the Body Worlds site, you pay for your body to be transported there.

Lots to consider in doing this.

Interesting topic.

My sister passed away last year in May. She had the contract with the Body Farm at the University of Tennessee drawn up YEARS before. She donated her entire body to the teaching hospital. There is no room for debate by the family members there. The document was signed when in "sound mind and body" and was a legal, binding contract. We, her sons, ad nauseum, had no recourse to take her body back AT ANY TIME. When they have performed all the forensic tests on her possible or necessary...the bones are stored at the McClung Museum.

All the people in my family (while they did not understand)...upheld her wishes.

They may have I remember them doing something like that some time ago....for some reason Monkette took them off the DVR sked...they're local to us in the Bay area

Here is the YouTube clip of the chicken gun. And yes, the myth was based on a story from NASA.

MB Chicken Gun

Didn't the Myth Busters test the chicken theory out?

They may have I remember them doing something like that some time ago....for some reason Monkette took them off the DVR sked...they're local to us in the Bay area

This is probably the wrong time and place for this post, but I have to do it...someone earlier said that one of the uses for bodies donated to science was crash test dummy?

There's a story that circulated (have to double check scopes) i'm not sure whether true or joke but here goes. Back in the day the US military was having a problem w/birds flying through the windshields of the war planes so engineers were wracking their brains to develop an accurate test. They created a launcher and fine tuned its calibrations to best represent the velocity of a bird in flight hitting the windshield. But still w/dismal results. They finally asked the British what they use and the Brits replied frozen chickens. So the US engineers loaded up their launchers and let loose but the same problem no glass could withstand the force of the hit. One day the British engineers went to the test facilities to see how they were progressing and looked on in horror at the carnage in the testing area. The US engineers said no matter how they changed the formula it was always the same....the British shook their heads sadly and told them...we use frozen chickens but we THAW them out first.

In a similar topic, it was reported that NASA spent millions and millions of dollars trying to develop ink that could be used in pens by the astronauts while they were in space....the Soviets gave the cosmonauts pencils.

Didn't the Myth Busters test the chicken theory out?

There's a story that circulated (have to double check scopes) i'm not sure whether true or joke but here goes. Back in the day the US military was having a problem w/birds flying through the windshields of the war planes so engineers were wracking their brains to develop an accurate test. They created a launcher and fine tuned its calibrations to best represent the velocity of a bird in flight hitting the windshield. But still w/dismal results. They finally asked the British what they use and the Brits replied frozen chickens. So the US engineers loaded up their launchers and let loose but the same problem no glass could withstand the force of the hit. One day the British engineers went to the test facilities to see how they were progressing and looked on in horror at the carnage in the testing area. The US engineers said no matter how they changed the formula it was always the same....the British shook their heads sadly and told them...we use frozen chickens but we THAW them out first.

In a similar topic, it was reported that NASA spent millions and millions of dollars trying to develop ink that could be used in pens by the astronauts while they were in space....the Soviets gave the cosmonauts pencils.

To me when you die you are just entering the next phase, and I don't mean spiritually. That's a topic for another debate. (only don't let it get too rowdy around here!! lol lol) You can spend your next phase all by yourself in a dark box underneath a bit of earth, you can always skip the phase all together and be cremated, or you can make yourself more useful than you probably were in life by donating your body. You get to go to all different places and do all sorts of new and interesting things. I'd do it for sure. It's sort of like "Join The Navy And See The World"!!

RAmen brother! /laugh.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=';)' />

most of what we do with a loved one's remains has more to do with our needs than the world's.

This is SO true! The "sacred" rituals of death are mostly for the family, whether it be a funeral or sitting Grandpa Joe on the mantle place. At least with organ or body donation, you have some say over your body after death.

For me, nothing would be worse than some well intentioned family member sticking me in a dress and displaying me in a box. *shudder*

All true, but, for me, I'm dead, I don't care anymore.

The people learning from doing these things will be getting much more from the experience than my body will by rotting in the ground.

Imagine if donations, organ or otherwise, never took place. We'd still be doing guess work with a lot of the functions of the body.

All in all, it's for the greater good of the human species if we can learn from our dead, not just let them rot away or sit on a mantle place. IMO

most of what we do with a loved one's remains has more to do with our needs than the world's.