If you choose to donate (or bequest) your body to a medical institution after you die, your body may be used to teach anatomy to medical and dental students and other health care professionals for surgical training, education or research.
Medical schools will usually arrange for donated bodies to be cremated and those remains returned to the family.
If you wish to donate your body to science, you should sign and have witnessed TWO Bequest Consent Forms, which you can get from your local medical school before you die. You MUST discuss your wishes with your next of kin so that they know your intentions and agree to carry out your wishes after your death. One copy goes to the Bequeathal Secretary at the Medical School so that your name can be included in the register of potential donors. The second copy should be left with your Next of Kin, but NOT filed with your Will which might not be accessed for months until after your death.
Your body may not be accepted for donation are if there has to be a Coroner’s post mortem, if you die abroad, if you die with a severe infection (e.g. hepatitis, tuberculosis, HIV, MRSA, septicaemia), if you have Alzheimer’s disease or senile dementia of unknown cause, if you die from complications following recent surgery or where you have bed sores, varicose ulcers or oedema.
Medical schools can’t usually accept a body if the person has undergone surgery to remove organs for transplantation. However, if after their death, the person is found unsuitable to be an organ donor, then body donation to a medical school can be approved by your next of kin.