Donating “to science”

In my early teens, my fra­ter­nal grand­mother, in her early nineties, died. There was no funeral, just a memo­r­ial ser­vice. Non­nie had given her body to sci­ence. I had no idea what that meant exactly and I didn’t ques­tion it. But it seemed like a good and hon­or­able thing to do.

About twenty five years later (1996), my father died. He, too, had given his body “to sci­ence”. We all knew ahead of time that Indi­ana Uni­ver­sity would receive cus­tody of his body when the time came. Unfor­tu­nately, Dad died while vaca­tion­ing in Florida. So the Uni­ver­sity of Miami got his body.

At this point I under­stood bet­ter that what this meant was that future doc­tors get a hands on anatomy les­son. Although I assumed that such stu­dents went about the dis­ec­tions with a bit more respect than what might be found in a high school class dis­ect­ing frogs, I also assumed that it was all very anony­mous. A year or so later, Dad’s cre­mated remains were returned to Mom and were interred in a grave.

About a year ago, Mom (Anne) passed. We all knew ahead of time that she had donated her body to Indi­ana Uni­ver­sity. They were called. They took care of every­thing. It was a bless­ing to not have to urgently deal with any details of a ser­vice or funeral. A memo­r­ial ser­vice was held.

Sev­eral months later, my old­est sib­ling received a let­ter from the instruc­tor of Human Gross Anatomy at the Indi­ana Uni­ver­sity School of Med­i­cine — North­west. From the letter:

Your beloved mother bequeathed her body for use in anatom­i­cal edu­ca­tion. Anne’s gifts to my stu­dents, myself and our fac­ulty and staff are many; her gift of “self” is the most pro­found gift that any per­son can give. We have learned much and con­tinue to learn from Anne. Your mother will touch lives of the thou­sands of peo­ple that we serve.

This let­ter was an invi­ta­tion to the school’s annual Ser­vice of Thanks­giv­ing & Remem­brance of Our Donors. Four of Anne’s chil­dren attended this ser­vice. It was pow­er­ful and mov­ing. There were prayers and read­ings. But there was also the oppor­tu­nity for the four stu­dents who worked with Mom to tell us what they learned.

When they men­tioned Mom’s bro­ken arm, my brother told the story of how it broke and what hap­pened in the hospital.

There were six donors being hon­ored that day. 23 stu­dents educated.

Anony­mous? I do believe that all 23 stu­dents will always remem­ber with grat­i­tude the name of the donor he or she worked with.

Mom & Dad gave tire­lessly to so many peo­ple all their lives. And beyond.

It is my under­stand­ing that though the IU School of Med­i­cine — North­west is the only school that holds such a ser­vice; the respect, rev­er­ence and grat­i­tude exhib­ited by the stu­dents we met that day is the norm.

More info can be found at the Anatom­i­cal Edu­ca­tion Pro­gram web site.