Body Donation: Should You or Shouldn’t You?

Posted on 16. Apr, 2014 by in Health Q and A

Many people today are considering becoming full body donors for a variety of reasons. Body donation has come out from the shadows and into the mainstream media over the past few years thanks in part to Facebook. A couple of years ago, Facebook started allowing its members to publish their intentions of becoming body donors on their pages. As a result, w body donor programs such as sciencecare.com saw a marked increase in the number of applications they received. Here are some facts about body donation that will help you decide if becoming a body donor is right for you.

Your Donation will be Very Beneficial

When you’re accepted into a body donor program, you will be helping to find treatments and cures for a wide range of medical conditions and diseases. Your tissues and organs will be used by scientists and research teams in their quest to find better ways to treat sick people. It could be that your generous donation will help to find a cure to a disease that’s killed millions of people around the world. Imagine a world free of a horrid disease like cancer or MS! It is entirely possible that your family members will benefit directly from your donation as donated bodies are used to help find treatments and cures for a wide variety of ailments including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, spinal cord injuries and more. As a body donor, you are given peace of mind knowing that once you’re gone, your body will be put to very good use.
Money Savings for You and Your Loved Ones

Once you’ve pledged to donate your body to a research or educational facility, you will never have to worry about making financial arrangements for your funeral and burial. This is because body donor programs pick up and transport the donor bodies shortly after death wherein there’s no need for a funeral or burial. Instead, once the donated body has been used by the facility, the cremated remains will be returned to the family so they can then hold a memorial service for the deceased if they wish. It’s also important to know that the cremation is paid in full by the body donor program. Considering that funeral and burial expenses can cost tens of thousands of dollars and cremation fees average about $1000, you and your family will be able to save a considerable amount of money as a result of you being a donor.

Not Everyone Can Donate

When you’ve decided to look for a body donor program to join, it’s important to visit that program’s website so you can carefully read through the body donation FAQ section. Once you start reading about a particular program, you will see that not everyone is allowed to donate. Body donation programs require that the donated bodies are in good condition when they arrive at the facilities that will use them for research and learning. To further explain, a body that is riddled with cancerous tumors for instance, will be of little use to a group of scientists, researchers or medical students as it simply will be in too poor of a condition to be deemed useful.

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