I’m grateful that none of our cadavers were unclaimed remains. All of them had info sheets with demographics, profession, and a brief health history. Our school also holds a Donor Memorial ceremony every year, but I don’t know if that’s common or ubiquitous among medical schools.
If you’re in a relatively privileged class and this bothers you, one easy step is to file an end of life directive with your doctor (you should be doing this anyway), and say you want to donate your body for medical training/research.
I am fine with medical schools taking in unclaimed bodies for the purpose of training future doctors, but it is disturbing that the number of such bodies has spiked so much. That can’t be good. This seems especially problematic given there are businesses out there who offer people free cremation through donation, but then sell the bodies off – often for parts – pocket the money, and let business decide what to do with them, such as bomb testing.
That is: family probably could have gotten a free cremation (with gruesome capitalism behind it), but instead, an increasing number of bodies are getting sent to schools. This says worrying things about the nation’s social and fiscal security.
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