While cultural, religious or personal beliefs may stop many people from contemplating such a thing, for others, the opportunity to do something useful with their body can be extremely attractive. And there can be lots of uses - from medical education and research to producing anatomical specimens and surgical training.
In New South Wales and most other states, when it comes to donating your body there are a number of places you can approach - from universities to specific associations.
In South Australia it's a little easier, with one central body operating out of the University of Adelaide.
Manager of the Ray Last Anatomy Laboratories at the University of Adelaide, Wesley Fisk, joined Mornings Presenter Angela Owens to discuss the issue.
"In South Australia at the moment, we've got around 6,500 people registered on our books - as intending to donate. That equates to around 80 donors per year but of course with increasing demands for surgical training, we're actually looking to increase those numbers over coming years," Mr Fisk said.
But not everyone may be eligible.
Mr Fisk said there are a number of factors that can affect whether or not an institution accepts a donation.
"The first couple being gross obesity or severe emaciation...that's because we're trying to teach the normal structure and function of the human body so that when students see the abnormal structures, or pathologies, they actually can recognise this. The second reason as to why we wouldn't accept is infective processes because the health and safety of our staff and students is paramount. The third one is the time from death to the time we actually receive the body. Because most bodies are actually embalmed, and that process requires the body to be in a good condition, we really have a time limit of around 3 days from the time of death to the time we can accept."
So how does body donation differ from organ donation?
"Here in South Australia, the donation of a body to the university is a total and unconditional donation. So really, you're giving the body over to the university to be used in whatever way we deem most beneficial to the advancement of science. That means that the body could be used in primarily one of four streams; either for undergraduate dissection, surgical training - which is a growing area at the moment because it's the only place where surgeons can actually practice procedures prior to performing it on live patients, there's research - universities and bodies donated to universities are the only source of human research material after death. Also, the preparation of teaching specimens, that's the fourth way that they can be used. These are long term teaching specimens, where part of the body is dissected to demonstrate the relationship of structures and vessels and that way those specimens can be kept for the next 10, 15 or in the cases of museum pots, they could be kept for the next 100 years."
SOURCE: http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2011/12/15/3391590.htm
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| Bodies donated typically embalmed to preserve the |
| tissues, or frozen for use in surgical training |
In New South Wales and most other states, when it comes to donating your body there are a number of places you can approach - from universities to specific associations.
In South Australia it's a little easier, with one central body operating out of the University of Adelaide.
Manager of the Ray Last Anatomy Laboratories at the University of Adelaide, Wesley Fisk, joined Mornings Presenter Angela Owens to discuss the issue.
"In South Australia at the moment, we've got around 6,500 people registered on our books - as intending to donate. That equates to around 80 donors per year but of course with increasing demands for surgical training, we're actually looking to increase those numbers over coming years," Mr Fisk said.
But not everyone may be eligible.
Mr Fisk said there are a number of factors that can affect whether or not an institution accepts a donation.
"The first couple being gross obesity or severe emaciation...that's because we're trying to teach the normal structure and function of the human body so that when students see the abnormal structures, or pathologies, they actually can recognise this. The second reason as to why we wouldn't accept is infective processes because the health and safety of our staff and students is paramount. The third one is the time from death to the time we actually receive the body. Because most bodies are actually embalmed, and that process requires the body to be in a good condition, we really have a time limit of around 3 days from the time of death to the time we can accept."
So how does body donation differ from organ donation?
"Here in South Australia, the donation of a body to the university is a total and unconditional donation. So really, you're giving the body over to the university to be used in whatever way we deem most beneficial to the advancement of science. That means that the body could be used in primarily one of four streams; either for undergraduate dissection, surgical training - which is a growing area at the moment because it's the only place where surgeons can actually practice procedures prior to performing it on live patients, there's research - universities and bodies donated to universities are the only source of human research material after death. Also, the preparation of teaching specimens, that's the fourth way that they can be used. These are long term teaching specimens, where part of the body is dissected to demonstrate the relationship of structures and vessels and that way those specimens can be kept for the next 10, 15 or in the cases of museum pots, they could be kept for the next 100 years."
SOURCE: http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2011/12/15/3391590.htm
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