Anatomical Donation

Anatomically Donating your body to medical science is different from donating organs, in that the entire body is given to a medical school or teaching hospital. Most schools don't allow you to donate your body for a specific purpose—you give them the body and they decide how to use it, usually for training medical students, but sometimes for research. The receiving institution should pay for the transport of the body, embalming, and later cremation of the remains (which are returned to the family), but the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act does allow “processing fees” to be charged. The Act has prevented some kinds of abuse and trafficking, but offenses still occur. A lot of medical schools want arrangements to be taken care of in advance, to find out more about donation, contact your preferred medical school for details. Often their website will have information and forms to fill out.