Donate your body to science!!!!

[ceo_esq]

He's probably a conservative Catholic. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, our bodies will be resurrected:It is my understanding that it is for this reason that the Catholic Church banned the practice of cremation until the 1960s, and until recently (late 1990s?), would not allow cremains in a Church during funeral mass.

It's true that in the modern era the Catholic Church actually forbade the practice of cremation except in cases of public necessity. My understanding is that this had absolutely nothing to do with the Catholic belief in the ultimate resurrection of the body, which according to their theology will occur miraculously regardless of how the original body's component molecules were dispersed. Indeed, the rejection of cremation apparently was not based on any resistance to the practice itself, but rather to certain pagan or anti-Catholic ideologies that have historically been associated with cremation (including, notably, Freemasonry).

In 1983 the canon law was changed to allow Catholic cremations "unless it has been chosen for reasons which are contrary to Christian teachings".

I'm not aware of anything in Catholic theology that would oppose someone's donation of his body to science.

 

[American]

I'm not aware of anything in Catholic theology that would oppose someone's donation of his body to science.

I'm pretty sure they talk in generalities like "reverence for the flesh"... Basically you treat a corpse with the same dignity you do a living body (not literally, just in terms of respect and non-abuse).

 

[athon]

Catholic dogma teaches that at the end of days, we all get up - whole bodied - out of the graves, dust ourselves off and go about our business again (an interpretation of Revelations).

I know, I know, but we're all worm meat, right? Come on, who said it had to make sense? I went to Catholic high school, and this is what they said happened. No wonder I'm an atheist.

Athon

 

[nightwind]

Body to Science

Do you have to donate your body to just science, or can you donate it to anyone?

 

[kittynh]

Get the book "Stiff" from your library.

I think you can be specific about what is done with your body.

One University just puts bodies out in a field on campus, so the forensic science dept can study what happens to a body over time. There is always plenty of parking in the lot near the field...

 

[Segnosaur]

I'm donating my body to be used as compost.

 

[roger]

I'm donating my body to be used as compost.

In your case, wouldn't oil be a better choice?

 

[BTox]

My body is too Greek God-like to have it cremated or hacked up by med students. I'm considering having it coated with concrete and turned into a statue

 

[Melissa Johnson]

I'm planning on living long and well enough to have a very interesting corpse left over. Don't know yet whether I'll donate it to science, the way my mother in law did, or whether I'll opt for an all-out Catholic weep-fest, just to piss everyone off and wake the neighbors.

 

[Melissa Johnson]

Although, creepily enough, I just suddenly remembered some of my husband's crazy stories from his navy corpsman classes, and the idea of donating to science loses some of its charm. While I would like to be a fly on the wall when they dissect my liver in 2069 and hear the instructor say "This is why the government banned alcoholic beverages in this country," I'm not real hip to the idea of goofy anatomy students throwing my body parts around in an impromptu session of 'severed limb volleyball'.

Yes, I'm bored sick at work....

 

[Craig]

My body is too Greek God-like to have it cremated or hacked up by med students. I'm considering having it coated with concrete and turned into a statue

Ah, time for a quote:

"Most people leave their bodies to medical science. I'm leaving mine to the Louvre, baby!" - The Cat

 

[Babylon Sister]

How about donating to the Body Farm at the University of Tennessee?

click here

A facinating place if you can stand the smell. (the smell and the magots are the reasons I didn't go into forensic anthropology. Eeewwwwww!)

 

[Prospero]

What is the human body after death?

Meat.

They can do whatever they want with it, so long as it's productive. Nothing I hate worse than an unproductive corpse.