Body donation
 |
Body donation is the donation of the whole body after death for medical research and education. For years, only medical schools accepted whole bodies for donation, but now private programs also accept donors.
Body donation is useful for understanding the human body and for advancing science. Medical schools use whole embalmed bodies to teach anatomy to medical students. These organizations will often cover the cost of cremation or burial once the cadaver has served its medical purpose and is returned to the family for interment. Any person wishing to donate their body may be required, but not always, to make prior arrangements with the local medical school, university, or body donation program before death. Individuals may request a consent form, and will be supplied information about policies and procedures that will take place after the potential donor is deceased.
Each country may have differing regulations surrounding the donation of the body or body parts.
United Kingdom
Body donation in the UK is governed by the Human Tissue Authority under the auspices of the Human Tissue Act 2004. The HTA licenses and inspects establishments, such as medical schools, which teach anatomy using donated bodies. Under the Human Tissue Act, written consent must be given prior to death; consent cannot be given by anyone else after death. [1]
United States
Only the legal next-of-kin of the deceased can provide the necessary consent for donation if the donor did not provide it to the specific accepting program prior to death.
Body donation is not regulated through licensure and inspection by the federal government and most states. The legal right for an individual to choose body donation is governed by the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act which has been largely adopted by most states. Laws relating to the transportation and disposition of human bodies apply.
The American Association of Tissue Banks (AATB) provides accreditation to non-transplant tissue bank research and education programs to establish that the level of medical, technical and administrative performance meets or exceeds the standards set by the AATB. Whole body donation and non-transplant tissue banking remains an industry with limited regulation, and while it is not a legal requirement, accreditation allows for individuals choosing to donate their body to medical research or education programs to choose a program with the highest quality standards.
The American Medical Education and Research Association ( AMERA) is the only organization in the United States to provide accreditation to organizations using standards developed solely for non-transplant organizations. This includes whole body donor organizations, university anatomical programs, bio-repository programs and end users of human tissue. AMERA encourages the industry to become accredited and involved in establishing standards that are relevant to non-clinical tissue organizations.
While many lives are saved each year from live transplant donors few are aware of the life saving benefits of body donation to mankind. Millions of lives are saved through the advancements made in cancer research pharmaceutical developments including surgical and medical advancements that improve the length and quality of life. Much of the modern miracles in medicine today is a direct result of those who donated their bodies to research and education.