Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Rosa on July 17, 2008 at 10:18am

Sure, after I'm dead that is, I'm not planning to be using my body after that so why not help others.

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Permalink Reply by Sarah on July 17, 2008 at 11:01am

It seems easy enough to do, but my mom has researched it in our area (Atlanta) and has not been able to find anyone who will a) return her calls or b) want to take more bodies. For now I am an organ donor. The rest they can do whatever with, I don't care.

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Permalink Reply by Valles Marineris on July 17, 2008 at 11:46am

Well, I am an organ donor. If my death can help save someone else's life, I think I'd rather do that.

I did see a show about "The Body Farm" at the University of Tennessee, where people have donated their bodies to be studied for forensic anthropology. It's basically a big field where the bodies are left to decompose in different places to assess the rate of decomposition and what factors into it. It was pretty interesting, and a little gross.

Here's a link if anyone is interested.

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Permalink Reply by LeaT on July 17, 2008 at 1:49pm

I would sign up to become an organ donator at first. In a way, I must say I would prefer having my body being burnt to ashes and then spread out wherever it may be, probably at the sea though, than being used in scientific experiments. I guess it's just the romanticist in me.

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Permalink Reply by IsThatLatin on July 17, 2008 at 1:56pm

I'm an organ doner. I'd definitely agree to have the good folks in the sceintific community give me a once over after I kick it. I believe there are a number of things you can do, and depending on what any given organization needs, you can actually split yourself up and spread yourself around. I need to look into that. Whatever's left I'll have interred in some happy, environmentally friendly way. I suspect some folks might want a place to visit my bits. :)

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Permalink Reply by Dane on July 17, 2008 at 2:11pm

I'm already a doner. When I die, I really won't give two shits as to what happens to my body. So it might as well be used to help save someones life or maybe help a scientist get one more insight. Why not? Its not like I'm going to be resurrected as a 2000 year old jewish mummy, right.

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Permalink Reply by Goldfishflakes on July 17, 2008 at 9:39pm

I'm an organ donor. I have considered whole body donation...but I wonder what that would do to my survivors. For instance, my daughter...when the day comes and I "go"...I'm not sure how she'd feel about not getting to bury "me".

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Permalink Reply by arensb on August 30, 2008 at 8:38pm

I'm pretty sure that what matters in a funeral is not the part about putting a body into the ground, but the part about saying goodbye and coming to terms with the person not being around anymore.

Presumably a competent funeral director knows how to deal with cases where the person died at sea, or in a mining accident, or otherwise didn't leave a body to bury. So your daughter can still have a ceremony. I also suspect that medical schools deal with relatives wanting to say goodbye to the body, so she'll hopefully have that option open as well.

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Permalink Reply by fortunate on July 18, 2008 at 10:33am

Nah, I'd rather be buried under a tree or somewhere green. But they can have my organs. :D

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Permalink Reply by pounce on July 18, 2008 at 3:31pm

organ donor here too. helping others in immediate need seems to be the best use of my body once i'm done with it.

the comedian david cross mentioned how not being an organ donor was the most selfish jerk thing a person could do. we are kind of on the same page here. once i'm dead, the idea that my organs could help someone in need is a wonderful thought, more appealing than any other kind of afterlife.

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Permalink Reply by Chip on July 18, 2008 at 4:05pm

I'm an organ donor, but after that, science can have the rest of me if they want it.

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Permalink Reply by Dave on July 18, 2008 at 6:57pm

Yes.
A long time ago I worked in a medical school and saw first hand what happens to bodies donated to science. I was a regular 'live' model for anatomy classes and 'starred' alongside other body parts in bottles.
Lets face it most of us won't get a memorial to our life when we are dead. Very few of us get buried and have headstones. This way a bit of you may last a while longer even though there's typically no identification attached.

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