21
votes
The journey of donating a body to science
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- Title
- My mother donated her body to science. I really wasn't prepared for what came next
- Authors
- Guardian staff reporter
- Published
- Oct 24 2026
- Word count
- 2567 words
This reminds me of the big scandal from a few years ago where a guy donated his mother's body to science and found out later they used her body to test military explosives and the company had a bunch of fucked up shit come out about what they were doing with corpses.
I think this is the place my mom plans donating her body to and where my dad’s body went years ago. This was after the scandals, so the forms had a section asking for consent to use the body for military purposes, which I declined. Even so, the whole process was a bit fishy, and by the time we received his cremains, I had serious doubts whether they were his or whether they were actually cremains. Once they take the body, there is no telling what they do with it. It was our only option at the time, but I still kind of regret how it all happened. I do like the idea of donating your body to science, but in my experience, it was creepily opaque.
I think that was part of the scandal, the guy received ashes but they werent his mother's and used her body for the testing
Body Brokers have too little oversight. One of my favourite episodes of Swindled covers this topic https://swindledpodcast.com/podcast/84-the-body-broker/
Haunting stuff. People like that have no scruples mistreating donated bodies to make a quick buck.
This reminded me that I need to check whether my body donor paperwork is still valid. I filled it out when getting my own affairs in order after my parents died. In Michigan, it was a little more straightforward than in the article, and I'm guessing the requirements may have changed in the intervening years. And now, for various reasons, I'm not qualified to be an organ donor, so it's definitely going to be whatever is left in place when I die.
Gross anatomy class was one of the most reverent experiences I had throughout a lifetime's worth of education. I can comment on my fellow med student's attitudes towards the cadavers we studied. There were clearly some who used humor to defer their dread of death; some who were content to "map the meat"; and some who, like me, thought it was the source of all impulses to worship, a vessel of neverending intricacy and a fountainhead of awe at evolution's sculpture.
And even in that state of viewing the most intimate secrets of bodies laid bare and parted by the scalpel, you'd have these weird moments of "that looks just like Thanksgiving turkey" from the desiccating effects of formaldehyde, or "gallbladders really are green" or "I can absolutely tell which hand was dominant".
I still have a deep gratitude for each family that consented to body donation. As the article mentioned, it's not just medical students, it's highly trained specialists, surgeons, biomedical engineers, and others who need the opportunity to see and handle real human body parts and deliver care with hands-on understanding.
Beautifully written. Out of interest, how could you tell which hand was dominant? My guess would be that perhaps there's more callouses on the dominant hand? Or is it that the muscles are larger on that limb?
Hand dominance affects nearly everything over a lifetime of adaptations - the thickness of nerves in the brachial plexus, spinal column processes, bone growth at the skeletal muscle attachments, cartilage wear on most joints on the dominant side, even sizes of fingers and ipsilateral brain anatomy. Dexterity requires a lot of neural processing, and it makes evolutionary sense not to duplicate its maximum capacity on both sides. It's a more dramatic differentiation than you'd suspect given that there's only about 10% difference in gross strength between the dominant and non-dominant sides.
I came across this curious article discussing the journey to donating their mother’s body to science. The author goes through the steps that led to the decision (it was their mother who wished for it), along with the aftermath
Not everyone will process death in the same way. Some might take this as an option, while others may be repulsed. Regardless, I think this is an important topic to discuss, with each person and their respective families weighing the decision.
Have any Tilderinos had an experience with body donation? I’d love to hear about it if anyone is willing to share!
Both of my parents signed up to have their bodies donated, though I wasn't involved in setting it up. One donation has already happened. My mother had ALS, and decided on the date of her death, as we live in a place that believes in the personal freedom to decide when a medical condition is intolerable. So we just let the university know the expected window for pickup. Once she had passed and everyone had said their goodbyes, we called and her body was picked up within 15 minutes.