Introduction
If you want to donate organs from your body after your death, it is important to tell your family, because organs must be removed very quickly to be useful. It is also helpful if you carry a donor card and register with the NHS Organ Donor Register at PO Box 14, Pathway, Bristol BS34 8ZZ. You can pick up a donor card from your doctors or pharmacy.
If you object to drug testing on animals, you may like to consider donating tissue from your body for research. Your relatives must be prepared to make fast contact with the Histology Department of the Peterborough District Hospital at Thorpe Road, Peterborough PE3 6DA, tel 01733 875892. They also have a website at www.tissuebank.co.uk. They will collect and return bodies in most parts of the UK.
Donor card scheme
Many people feel that their body should have a use after death. A very popular scheme in the UK is the Donor Card scheme. Which allows donors, in the event of their death, to help someone else to live? With over 5,000 people in the UK in need of a transplant, this allows the matching of organs from people who no longer need them to people who will die if they don't get a transplant soon. If you do not have a card, but wish to be registered, then please visit here.
Organs for medical science
|Another way of finding a use for your body, or the body of a loved one, is to bequeath the whole body to medical science. Bequeathing a body to medical science will benefit society for generations to come and are generally used in one of 2 ways
Anatomical examination
Research
Strictly speaking, one cannot legally own one's own dead body and, therefore, cannot legally bequeath or donate it. However, if a deceased person has expressed a wish during life to give his or her body for teaching and research, or to donate organs, relatives seldom fail to carry out this wish.
It is important that if you wish to bequeath your body for teaching and research and/or donate your organs for transplantation, you should discuss your wishes with your relatives or executor(s) of your will.
Some of the information below may be graphic in nature, and is provided solely to give you the details that you need to be able to make a decision with the full facts.
Anatomical examination The Anatomy Act 1984 enables people to bequeath their bodies for anatomical examination, which means teaching, studying, or researching into form, shape or structure of the human body.
This allows the teaching of anatomy to medical & dental students, related professionals, and students on authorised courses of anatomy.
The Anatomy Act allows the examination to last up to 3 years. When it is complete, arrangements are made for the remains to be cremated.
Occasionally a body may have clinically important anatomical variations and take a great deal of time & skill to reveal. In such circumstances, if permission is granted by you (on the forms provided), then these parts may be kept for a longer time.
Research
It is possible to bequeath a body for research, governed under the Human Tissue Act 1961.
The body will be used in research relevant to the science or practice of medicine, including the development of surgical skills.
A bequest may be declined under the following circumstances
If the body has had a post-mortem examination, or the deceased died suddenly or following accidents, since these usually come under a Coroner's jurisdiction;
If, at the time of death, organs are removed for transplantation, then we will not be able to accept the body for teaching and research, with the exception of bodies from which the eyes only have been removed;
If, at the time of death, there is insufficient storage space, a shortage of staff, or for any other legitimate reason.
If by chance you find some error of law or fact in any Net Lawman information page, do please tell us. We should also welcome your suggestions for new subjects for information pages. These notes:
Do not provide a complete or authoritative statement of the law;
Do not constitute legal advice by Net Lawman;
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Do not form part of any other advice, whether paid or free.
