Leaving your body for medical research

[MAD87]

Found it!

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/2 ... r-research

Not nice, but I'm confident that other centres have learned from it.

[DaveW]

My wife signed up about 5 years ago and the doctor and mairie were duly informed. Although I have some doubts about the need in these strange times, I will always honour her wishes.

[Spectrum]

Will probably leave mine I know its been well preserved in Alcohol

[Spardo]

A good idea [mention]MAD87[/mention] and can involve some self interest, for the widow/widower too.

A very good friend of ours, a dog fosterer for Phoenix, left her body to Limoges and the payback was that they paid for the eventual funeral and cremation. They harvested what they needed for research and then we all went to Limoges for the funeral (fittingly, close to the SPA), very soon afterwards, so definitely no stockpiling there.

Not sure if the same applies for burial, but I can't see why not. Fran is most definite that she wants that, for both of us.

[MAD87]

@ Spardo: Hospitals generally use the whole body in anatomy lectures (1st year) and then get students to dissect specific parts. I used to get regaled with /subjected to accounts of the bits involved and what the poor sod had expired from, over Sunday lunch.

[niemeyjt]

@ Spardo: Hospitals generally use the whole body in anatomy lectures (1st year) and then get students to dissect specific parts. I used to get regaled with /subjected to accounts of the bits involved and what the poor sod had expired from, over Sunday lunch.

In my era, first years got to do the body and legs - second year the heads and necks. One of the pranks was for second years to put something just dissected out of head into the body cavity as a "challenge" to the first years. All dissected bits were put into numbered steel bins for "reassembly" at the end of the year and handing over to relatives in a sealed casket.

Preservation was by formalin mix - into the femoral artery in the groin - over a couple of weeks and the blood was thus flushed out. Over the year the body dried and shrank slightly - but the hair didn't - giving the impression the hair was still growing!

Hopefully not too much information for coffee break.

[Spardo]

[mention]niemeyjt[/mention]

Hopefully not too much information for coffee break.

Certainly not but has set me thinking about Babs and her rapid funeral. It was only a couple of weeks after she died, and her miserable skinflint of a husband assured us he didn't spend a penny.

[niemeyjt]

My best man - who died of CJD - left his body for research. They took him to Cambridge (as Biohazard) and removed the neurological bits they wanted - then the rest was buried about two weeks later. As others have said, research takes many forms - not all of which means a year on the dissecting table.

[Spardo]

My best man - who died of CJD - left his body for research. They took him to Cambridge (as Biohazard) and removed the neurological bits they wanted - then the rest was buried about two weeks later. As others have said, research takes many forms - not all of which means a year on the dissecting table.

That'll be it then.

[Josie]

I understood that so many people opted for this that University hospitals were refusing future 'donations'? Or that they had a get-out clause whereby they could decline the body and the funeral arrangements and costs reverted to the family. Worth looking into when there is no family involved.