What to do with your body when you die?

I have searched the whole site looking for somewhere to ask this question but cant find anything where it would fit in. When I die (hopefully i have years and years left) I would like the following to be done with my bits n bobs. Its something i have been thinking about but dnt know if its possible and where i would start looking.

Organs - to be used on people who need them if possible, any remaining ones to be used for medical students or research.

Bones - to be given to medical students or something along those lines for use in learning things

Skin - ive heard about the Japanese using tattooed skin for lampshades etc or putting it in museums, that’s what I want doing with mine.

I know it sounds quite mad but that’s what I want to do, does anyone have any ideas whatsoever where I should start looking for info on if its possible or not?


[Edited on Nov 01, 2005 by gingerninja]

My grandmother always told my grandfather that when he died...she was going to shove a ham-bone up his ass and let the dogs drag him away.

You'd have to know my grandparents to knwo that this was said with love.

Me personally...I don't give a fuck what they do with me...I'll be dead.

organs to donation.

burn the rest.

throw some ashes in cash's eyes to get even for gi joe.

I don't know how things work in the UK, but in the US, make sure that you are very clear with your family about your wishes. It's not always easy for families to actually give up a loved one's body to things like medical research, so make sure that they know this is exactly what you want them do, no matter how difficult it may be for them.

Here, organ donation can be indicated on your driver's license - accidents often provide the best organs for donation because the deaths are a result of trauma, thus generally leaving the organs healthy (as opposed to a death from disease). In terms of donating the rest of your remains to science and research, contact a university in your area. In the US, the medical schools will often have forms for you to fill out if you would like to donate your remains to them.

No idea about the tatooed skin, but I'm guessing that you would probably have to choose between donating your body to medical research and figuring out someway to donate your skin elsewhere. I'm pretty certain that no research school or hospital is going to want a flayed, skinless body. I would encourage you to go for the medical research - human bodies are often very necessary and very rare, so you could potentially do some good by taking that route.

Also, read the book "Stiff" by Mary Roach. It may not thrill you to see what some remains are used for, but it's a fucking cool book about the history of human cadavers.

Neptune Society
My parents signed up for this. No matter where you die, they come and get your body.

Personally, I don't really care. If some good can come from my dead body, excellent. If my loved ones feel the need to burn a part of me and bury it or keep it with them or whatever, fine. I'm dead, what do I care?

[Edited on Nov 01, 2005 by toothpickmoe]

Part of my last job was marking people in our database as deceased and writing obituaries. One of our department heads gave me that book as a going away gift when I resigned.

ive just ordered that book from amazon, cant wait for it to come now !! i already have a donor card for my organs just gotta find a good home for the rest of me.

I was going to do the whole organ donor thing on my drivers license.. but I realized how much of demand there is for healthy organs. Then I got kinda paranoid, like if I got in a bad car wreck and was nearly dead that they might not try as hard to save me if they saw the donor sticker.
Regardless, when I die, I want to be tied up to a tree and have the crows pick my bones clean. Then I want someone to make chimes out of my bones and give them to my loved ones.

Give my carcass to a family of necrophiliacs!

Pinata!

I want them to hollow out my penis and sink it to the floor of the atlantic ocean where it will be used as a transatlantic tunnel between the UK and The U.S.

who gives a shit!! Im fucking dead. Them may do as they will with it. I don't care because I CAN'T!!

Fridge has a big penis.

I always assumed I was going to die climbing at altitude, so I could just be left up there frozen, but if not I want my body stuck in the ground in the middle of the wild under a mound with my sword shoved in it a'la Seven Samurai.

I am 99% sure that the nazis did that as well.

I wish you could donate your meat to cannibals. Cannibalism gets such bad press. And I am only joking a little, I'd eat man meat given half a chance.

Otherwise I guess I'd donate my body to science. Or donate my organs. I dunno, something. I find it hard to care really. Do whatever you want with my corpse, I won't be needing it.

I prefer the "enormous schlong" nomenclature.

All I know is when I die I'd like to go peacefully in my sleep just like my grandfather, and not screaming and clawing at the glass like the rest of the people in his car.

HA HA HA. Love that. I'm gonna write it down.

I've always wanted to go out in a blaze of glory, so I really hope that I die in such a way that there is nothing of me left.

Which one? Bible, Talmud, Qu'Ran?

I once asked my class this as a journal topic (tying it in with a lesson on Egypt). It did not go over well. All teachers out there, don't ever ask it. They also did not care to hear about how I want my ashes shot into space. Come to think of it, my family didn't like hearing about that either.

I'm donating mine to space elevator research.

i want my body exploded