HW 55- Culminating Project for Care of the Dead Unit

There are many decisions to be made about what one wants to have done with their body after they die. They need to choose if they want to be cremated, buried, or have some other method of getting the body out of sight. They also need to choose if they want to have their body embalmed or not. But before all of these things, one must decide if they want to donate their bodies and their organs donated to science. The decision to donate ones entire body to science is certainly a noble one, considering that the organs of that person may be used to save the life of someone who is sick. However, are cadavers always used by science to advance medical research and save lives? Or are there some more "profitable" ways to deal with the organs and the body after it has been donated to science that are unjustly being utilized by medical institutions?

The act of donating the body, or even just one organ, to science has always been regarded as a very honorable and considerate action, as it should be. Cadavers are extremely important to medical students, because they allow them to practice dangerous procedures that they would not be able to risk on a living patient, and are therefore extremely valuable in the world of medicine. For example, in London in the 17th century, "resurrectionists" were paid to dig bodies out of graves and essentially served as "body snatchers" or "grave robbers", making about five times as much as the average person at the time. In fact, "The best known of the London surgeon-anatomists was Sir Astley Cooper. In public, Cooper denounced the resurrectionists, yet he not only sought out and retained their services, but encouraged those in his employ to take up the job" (Roach, 45). Although the action of stealing a body right out of the grave seems to be down-right disrespectful, it is understandable why some people might believe that the result justifies the means. Cadavers are essential for research and can be operated on as practice so that real surgeries have a much higher chance of being successful. Not only that, the inside organs of most dead bodies tend to look, feel and react just like those of the living, which makes the training even more realistic. "On the inside, H looks very much alive. You can see the pulse of her heartbeat in her liver, and all the way down her aorta. She bleeds where she is cut and her organs are plump and slippery-looking" (Roach, 169). In addition, cadavers can also be used to help one discover when and how an accident such as a place crash may have occurred.

Unfortunately, it has become apparent that bodies generously donated to science with the intention of helping the living and to save lives are not necessarily serving those purposes. "Human remains have become increasingly valuable as medical research expands. Body parts are in demand by companies that want to teach surgeons to use their products, and they're also used at medical seminars where doctors can practice techniques and earn continuing education credits" (Armour). As a result of this, the practice of dismembering bodies and "dealing" the body parts to medical institutions has become very popular among harvesters. For example, an article in USA Today describes children of a woman who passed away receiving what the assumed to be the ashes of their mother. "But in 2002, family members say, they learned that the ashes didn't belong to their mother. Instead, they were told that an unscrupulous crematorium owner secretly carved up her body — along with the bodies of hundreds of other newly deceased — and provided knees, elbows, heads and other parts to medical research organizations in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars" (Armour). The article also states that over 16,000 lawsuits have been filed over the past 19 years arguing that the body parts of people's loved ones were being dismembered from the body and sold without the consent of the family. To touch on one of the less severe problems with the way that bodies are treated after science, it turns out that some cadavers are being used so that surgeons-in-training can practice doing nose-jobs. Although some people may think that this is a very important procedure, the reality is that most people probably did not imagine their bodies being used for the beautification of others rather than helping the living with actual medical issues or conditions.

From crematorium operators dismembering and harvesting the body parts of dead bodies without consent and then proceeding to distribute them to medical organizations, to body snatching in order to continue medical research, to experimenting nose-job techniques on dead bodies, it is safe to say that donating the body to science has not always been and is still not a completely honest business. However, for many people, the chance of being able to donate their own body in order to save the lives of others is enough to get many people to do it. Not only that, it turns out that if you donate your body, you do not have to pay any money for the cremation or burial process, where normally a traditional burial in New York City costs around $15,000! In summary, donation of the body to medical organizations is an option that should certainly be considered, but those who consider it should also be aware of the potential risks of harvesting.

 Citations

Armour, Stephanie. "Donated Bodies sometimes are sold for personal profit." 28 APR 2006: n. pag. Web. 16 May 2011. <http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2006-04-27-body-parts-sold_x.htm>.

Armour, Stephanie. "Illegal trade in bodies shakes loved ones." n. pag. Web. 16 May 2011. <http://www.usatoday.com/money/2006-04-26-body-parts-cover-usat_x.htm>.

"The Value of Donating." Science Care. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 May 2011. <http://www.sciencecare.com/donate.htm>.

Roach, Mary. Stiff. 1st. London: W.Norton & Company Ltd., 2003. Print.