Bodies given to medical schools?.....

[Dennis]

Hi:)

If bodies were donated to medical schools would there be any record of that? Also, how were such bodies disposed of?

Hmm wonder if I have an ancestor's liver sitting in a jar in some storage room:)


dennis

[StewL]

Hello Dennis

Here is an edited article regarding bodies donated to science.

If your lot are anything like mine, there livers sitting in a jeely jar on a shelf in storage somewhere wouldnt be a pretty sight


IN THE NAME OF SCIENCE

By Jeyling Chou
DAILY BRUIN SENIOR STAFF

Human cadavers have been used for anatomical study since the days of ancient Egypt. In the 19th century, law limited the bodies dissected by anatomists to those of executed criminals. But increasing demand and the lure of profit hatched the morbid, underground trade of grave robbing.

Then, the legendary 19th-century criminals, William Burke and William Hare took body snatching one step further – they murdered to give to science and to make a little on the side.

Burke and Hare were put to a stop in 1828, but the concept of voluntarily donating one's body to medicine is a relatively recent one.

"Donations are definitely a 20th century phenomenon," said Anita Guerrini, a history of science professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara…

Before the willed body programs of the 20th century, the demand for human cadavers was also met by the unclaimed bodies of poor people who died in public hospitals…

Horace Magoun, the first chairman of anatomy at the UCLA School of Medicine, founded the school's Willed Body Program in 1950…


Edited/Deleted email address of author.

[Rachel]

My old dad left his body to a medical school. I think he had cashed in the insurance policy that my mother had so carefully paid for, but she died before him and according to what he told me ' he did not want to be a bother to anyone' However the medical school involved had made preparatons for a proper funeral after a reasonable time, about 18 months, and he was duly cremated at the same crematorium as my mother. It was in fact a "nice funeral"
rachel