By deciding to donate your body or organs, you can make a valuable gift to humanity and offer hope to future generations. Many medical breakthroughs were a direct result of the education and research made possible by body donation, including new treatments for heart disease, cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease. Organ donation is also vitally important. Over 100,000 Americans of all ages desperately need a transplant, and your organs and tissues could save or transform more than 75 lives. See Donate Life and their helpful webpage of Frequently Asked Questions for more about organ donation.

What is required to donate my body?

Whole body donation must generally be pre-arranged by the donor before death. Be sure to discuss this decision with your family ahead of time. Medical institutions may not accept your body after death if your next-of-kin object.

There is no maximum age for a body to be accepted, but a variety of conditions may make the body unacceptable. So be sure to have a “Plan B” in case your body can’t be donated. Some of the reasons a body may not be accepted:

• Accident or injury has caused too much damage to the body
• Some body parts are not present. Amputation does not always preclude acceptance, however.
• Extreme obesity.
• Infectious diseases, such as hepatitis, HIV, tuberculosis, COVID-19.
• The institution already has plenty of bodies.

Another reason for rejection is TIMING. Can the Medical School acquire the body within 24 hours? (Medical schools have contracts with funeral homes for the logistics of transit; a quick call to the medical school’s Anatomical Gift Program should start the process, which is easiest if the death occurred in a hospital or institution that can maintain the body while awaiting transit.)

Massachusetts medical schools accepting bodies

• University of Mass. School of Medicine, Anatomical Gift Program. 508-856-2460.
• Harvard University Anatomical Gift Program. 617-432-1735.
• Tufts Anatomical Gift Program. 617-636-0837.
• Boston University School of Medicine. Forensic Anthropology. 617-358-2105.

What happens when they are through with my body?

After the body is used for medical instruction or research, it is cremated and the “ashes” are buried. Harvard, Tufts, and UMass medical schools use the Pine Hill Cemetery in Tewksbury, Massachusetts. Or, if the family wishes, the ashes can be returned to them.

Medical students appreciate the donors who have aided their medication education. Typically there is a memorial service to which the families of donors will be invited at the conclusion of the study period. The memorial service honors the people who donated their bodies to help students learn. See, for instance, the UMass webpage about Annual Memorial Service.

More Information

For an overview of donation options nation-wide, see the national Funeral Consumers Alliance’s webpage on Body, Organ, and Brain Donation.

CAUTION: Medical schools may be reasonably relied upon to use the donated body for research and educational purposes. If you donate your body to another type of entity, be sure to read all the information about how the body may be used. At present, it is illegal to pay families for bodies, and penalties are severe for any infractions.