Why Ill forgo the big-time funeral and donate my remains to science

[hrmjustin]

Jeffrey Weiiss

(RNS) I’ve signed the paperwork for what will happen with my remains once I hit the Egress.

No real rush, I’ll admit. My brain cancer, glioblastoma, will likely take me out, but not this week or this month, or even this year.

My latest prognosis pushes it into 2018, in fact, though. And it’s far from written in stone. But it has pushed me to make some decisions a bit faster than I’d considered before my diagnosis almost four months ago.

I figure I won’t really care what gets done with my physical stuff after I die. So I’m donating it to a local teaching hospital to use to help teach med students.

https://religionnews.com/2017/04/04/why-ill-forgo-the-big-time-funeral-and-donate-my-remains-to-science/

[guillaumeb]

1. Giving back even after death.

What an excellent idea.

[hrmjustin]

2. I am thinking of doing this when I drop dead.

[OregonBlue]

3. Very smart. Good for you.

[left-of-center2012]

4. Surprisingly (to me) ...

My right wing, evangelical Christian brother and his wife have made plans to donate their bodies to science.

(Maybe a dissection can show where they went wrong?)

[Jonny Appleseed]

5. Isn't "donating your body to science" just a nice way to say you'll be a practice cadaver for

med students?

[58Sunliner]

6. Bless your heart.

[COLGATE4]

7. ...

[hrmjustin]

8. One can say that but you can also can use it for forensic purposes.

[Mariana]

11. Actually, he says outright he's donating for medical students.

That isn't the only thing that's done with donated bodies, so no, it doesn't necessarily mean that. Anyway, what's wrong with being a practice cadaver for med students?

[Kacy]

9. Sticking it to the preditory funeral industry

…on behalf of its (often poor) victims was the main reason I decided on the same thing. Their practices upset me for a long time, and I realized this was something easy and effective I could do about it: it will keep me out of both their coffers and their coffins. And it’s a favor to both medicine and the earth.

Sympathies to you for what you have to handle.

[Jim__]

10. I'd never thought about that.

Now I will.

[Jim Lane]

12. Organ, eye, and tissue donation should be given priority

I learned something about this issue after my mother died.

Even the people at medical schools, who can use cadavers (or "cast-asides" if that term makes it easier for you) for teaching and research purposes, said that they would defer to any use that would immediately and directly benefit living patients.

If the donor is past a certain age, some of the options are cut off. My mother was 87, which meant that her heart and other such organs were deemed not suitable for transplant. Even at her age, though, we were able to honor her wish. The New England Organ Bank harvested skin, without affecting how she looked as she lay in the casket. Donor skin is very valuable for helping burn patients.

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