Would you donate your body to medical science?

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Akash_nu@reddit

Donating the body is probably the best option one can choose. Once someone is dead there’s really no reason for us to not use it for science. The person ain’t going to need it anyway.

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Scared_Research_8426@reddit

You know that a significant portion of donated cadavers go to the military to test explosives, right?

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GuiltyUsedAsparagus@reddit

This is a myth spread by the coffin industry

“Big Coffin” doesn’t want you to donate your body to science! They want to put you in a wooden box and charge your family a fortune for the privilege.

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Ok_Adhesiveness_8637@reddit

r/askuk wouldn't really care about that now, would they?

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Akash_nu@reddit

Whatever it’s used for. After death who cares? Any experimentation is better than wasting the body.

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spellish@reddit

Thought you couldn’t harvest organs from someone’s who’s already dead, you’ve gotta harvest when they’re right on the brink or in a coma or something. Could be mistaken

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The line between dead/not!dead is a lot fuzzier than we think. A lot of your individual cells can chunter on for weeks after "death" before finally running out of things to metabolise. I remember an anecdote from a geneticist once about how if they bought a string of sausages back from a butchers, then if they dug through them thoroughly enough they'd be able to find a few cells with enough life in them to start cloning a new animal (hopefully a pig, they added, laughing) from.

We found out a couple of years ago that parts of the brain can even spring back to "life" after what is considered brain death.

https://gizmodo.com/some-of-our-brain-cells-get-more-active-hours-after-we-1846537888

So, when do we die? Anything between when we stop breathing and possibly up to several weeks later. Depending on where we draw the line, and what we are monitoring. Sleep safe. If you die in your sleep, your brain might still try and wake you up in the morning.

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No-Jicama-6523@reddit

Can still clone a cell is a very odd definition of death.

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Belle_TainSummer@reddit

Geneticists are very odd people.

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jennymayg13@reddit

The difference that is being talked about here is donating to science rather than donating to another living person. If it’s to another person, then the person donating can’t be dead, but rather brain dead. If donating to science then the person can be dead as it is to perform research on the body or for medical students to practice on.

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Akash_nu@reddit

Correct! I think it’d be useful in both cases. I’d rather someone gets benefitted from my body than wasting it.

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Jin-shei@reddit

They can make the point of death last long enough to harvest if the person is in hospital. So artifical life support for a bit to save a life or two...

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tmr89@reddit

It’s a no brainer

Literally

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Successful_Print2031@reddit

Some places may cover your funeral costs if you donate your body

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Crittsy@reddit

There is no funeral as far as I know, a friend of mine donated his body, and that was the last his family saw or heard of him so, from the point of view of not being a financial burden on your family it's a winner

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FamSender@reddit

It’s been opt out for years in Scotland.

When I’m dead I don’t need my organs so it’s no drama.

I don’t have an issue without donating my entire body to be honest. Like I say it’s no use me.

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Willing_Parsley_2182@reddit

Don’t know what OP is on about. England has been opt-out since May 2020. Wales has been opt-out since 2015. Scotland was actually last with March 2021.

The post is about 5.5 years too late haha

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Dethark@reddit

After I read All That Remains by Sue Black, I have already started the process of donating my body.

No guarantee it will be used for teaching though, you could be used for testing pretty much anything.

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littletorreira@reddit

I'd be cool with that. Even if they want to strap my body into a car and use it for a crash test that's still useful. What do I care once I'm gone?

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littletorreira@reddit

Yes. I don't give a shit what happens to my body once I'm dead. If someone wants to feed it to the pigs that's a fairly good use. I'd like to be as much use as possible after whether it's medical science, a body farm or making furniture out of me I really couldn't give a shit.

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BG3restart@reddit

My mum applied and was accepted for teaching purposes, but because she died of cancer (undiagnosed until 10 days before she died), the body was refused. For teaching there were a lot of restrictions. They won't take a body that has had any surgeries or a post mortem on death. Make sure you have a backup plan. We had to hurriedly arrange a direct cremation.

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summerpeachxox@reddit

Interesting!! Me and my multiple endometriosis surgeries are out then!

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Captain_Kruch@reddit (OP)

When you say "had any surgeries", do you mean in their lifetime? Because I've had 3 operations up to now. So, am I ruled out? Bummer...

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BG3restart@reddit

Yes, any surgeries at all. I can't do it either. I was really surprised because I thought they'd be glad of any corpse to hack away at to practise their skills. There may be other avenues we didn't explore though, maybe research rather than teaching. My mum hadn't had any surgery, so she was a good candidate until we found out about the cancer.

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summerpeachxox@reddit

I'm torn between organ donation and leaving to science, i'll definitely be doing one! Ideally I think I'd like to say organ donation but if that's not possible when I go then donate me to science but I think you have to decide one or the other beforehand.. I need to do more research.

I have various health conditions so i'm not sure if my organs are usable anyway, something else I need to check.

Either way I will donate it somehow as I'd like to be of some use and I don't need it anymore! Donating bodies to science is equally important imo, students need to learn etc.

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Scared_Research_8426@reddit

I want my remains to be scattered over Disney land! But I don't want to be cremated

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anabsentfriend@reddit

Gosh, that image will give me nightmares tonight.

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anabsentfriend@reddit

I've been signed up for ten years. Not had the opportunity to rate the service yet.

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bellabanjsk@reddit

My aunt donated her body to ‘science’ and she ended up just being used to time decomposition rates of bodies in different environmental states. Everyone who loved her was upset by it.

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Slapspicker@reddit

Forensic Science is a very important field, her loved ones should feel proud of her contribution even if the idea of it is upsetting.

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bellabanjsk@reddit

We are all pretty sure that isn’t what she had in mind.

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NuancedBook4890@reddit

What would she have had in mind? You can't choose what your body is used for unless there is some kind of program that allows it. Bizarre reasoning

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Nine_Eye_Ron@reddit

Sure, sounds good to me.

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DrDiscombobulation@reddit

Of course

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takesthebiscuit@reddit

The only issue is creating a massive headache for your loved ones.

You will be gone, but someone has to do the admin, contact the hospital arrange the transfer and approve the procedure

This may be quite traumatic for your family and freinds

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AMD1607037@reddit

Whole body? No, there's no way of telling where your body will end up, people always assume all your organs will be used to save the lives of loads of other people and all that stuff but its just as likely your remains are used as a guinea pig for all sorts of stuff, for example I know in the US there's been cases where people's donated bodies have ended up being used as test dummies on military missile ranges etc.

I'd happily specify some organs for donation after death but not the whole thing.

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takesthebiscuit@reddit

This is ask UK the rules will be very tight here

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TSC-99@reddit

They can use me in the best way possible. I won’t care.

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FelisCantabrigiensis@reddit

Yes. I have standing instructions that after I die, as much of my body should be transplanted as possible and the rest should be used for medical research if anyone wants it. In my mind that includes things like making samples for display.

Unfortunately it seems to be more difficult to make "... and if you can think of something funny to do with the rest, go right ahead" take effect after you're dead. I suppose there's always having a book bound in my skin, just to add some weirdness to the world, but again that's hard to arrange posthumously. I might have to settle for my skull becoming a prop in a Shakespeare play.

I would much prefer people doing something useful or having a laugh with my remains than being sad about it. I certainly have no belief in any afterlife and I'm not going to need this body when I'm dead.

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RandomPlanespotting@reddit

I want to donate mine to science fiction.

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Belle_TainSummer@reddit

I'll be dead, so it won't matter to me what they do with my corpse.

Grill it up and serve it on a pizza with pineapple for all it matters to me.

Depending on who is right about the afterlife atheists/theists, I'll either have nothing to worry about (not to mention worry with) or waaaaaaaaaaaaay more pressing things to worry about.

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lubbockin@reddit

no, they harvest organs for profit, you can't trust government on anything.

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notanadultyadult@reddit

Yes. 100%. I love science and I’d love to be able to contribute to medicine in some way. Happy for all my organs to be donated if possible.

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London-maj@reddit

Yes, I have already signed up for this

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vibes000111@reddit

Yes, 100% - organ donation, science research, decoration, food - any way it can be more helpful than burning it or putting it in the ground is great.

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Captain_Kruch@reddit (OP)

Decoration? Is that you, Ed Gein?

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Western-Victorys@reddit

They can use every bit of me that works then give the leftovers to science or the Pedigree Chum factory.

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BreqsCousin@reddit

I'd rather donate my organs to someone who needs them.

I've seen how much of a difference it makes to someone's life, and seen how hard the medical teams work to make sure the organs get to the right people.

Donating to medical science would be a second choice, not a first choice.

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No-Structure-8125@reddit

Yes. When I'm dead I don't need my organs, or any part of my body for that matter. If my body can be used to study things and improve medical treatment for people going forward, why wouldn't I?

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TheAlpineKlopp@reddit

Because the thought of it scares me to death.

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Spicymargx@reddit

I would absolutely. I have quite a few health issues and also mental health issues. Any research to advance treatment for what I’ve gone through is something I will support wholeheartedly.

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AlGunner@reddit

Yep. Its just an empty carcase at that point. I should make an interesting study as well considering the amount I used to drink. Probably in the top 1% back in the day at my height, I wouldnt even be surprised if I held the unofficial British record for beer in one night and Im not even joking. My organs are probably no good for anyone else after that so yeah, let them use me for research.

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jennymayg13@reddit

Maybe, I’d donate organs to keep someone alive and if there is parts of me useful for scientific research then great. I would rather not be used for cadaver labs personally. I like the idea of my body being retuned after they took the useful bits, and then turned into one of those bio urns that becomes a tree rather than incinerated with medical waste, but that’s just me being sentimental.

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Embarrassed_Park2212@reddit

I'd absolutely leave my body. I have an autoimmune disease so I don't think organ donation would be viable. I would hate for anyone else to suffer what I have.

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DotCottonCandy@reddit

I don’t really care what happens to me when I’m done. I’m an organ donor, but everything else is up to my family to decide.

Also want to recommend the book Stiff by Mary Roach, which goes into the various uses of bodies for medical science. I had no idea that before using crash test dummies they sometimes use human bodies first, to figure out what exactly they want to look at on the crash test dummies.

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Even if med students just practice their stitching on it or something, that’s still better than sending most of it up a chimney.

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