The Ultimate Gift: Body Donation

Information relative to whole body donation was requested from a representative number of medical schools. Additionally, selected information contained on the Internet was gleaned as a helpful resource. This article reports aspects of body donation including physical arrangements, policies and procedures, limitations, and options available to families of donors. Body donation at death to university medical schools represents a valuable program for educating and training young doctors, dentists, nurses, and other allied professionals, and for promoting surgical and research techniques and procedures. While there is ample information about coping mechanisms of medical students and others involved in dissecting cadavers, little has been published concerning the effects of the donor program on surviving families.