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Donating your body

Have you ever contemplated donating your entire body to science? How do you do it? What parts can be used? And what happens to it afterwards?

Bodies donated to science for research are embalmed to preserve the tissues.

Bodies donated to science for research are embalmed to preserve the tissues. (Source: iStockphoto)

The first time I walked into the Anatomy Museum at Sydney University I was fascinated by the displays of dissected human parts in their beautiful wooden and glass cases. The following year I enrolled in Anatomy and often wondered about the people who had donated their bodies for us to study. So when it came time to write a will, I decided to donate my body 'to science'.

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A gruesome history

For centuries medical students have studied anatomy using real human cadavers. Today's students study bodies that have been generously donated by ordinary people. However, in the past bodies studied were those of criminals hung for their crimes. As the study of anatomy and surgery expanded, the demand for bodies increased and other means were used to procure bodies (see box — The Resurrectionists). Australia's current Anatomy Acts — the laws that govern body donation — have their roots in the original Anatomy Act that was created following a shocking incident that took place in Edinburgh in the 1820s.

Edinburgh was the centre of anatomy teaching at that time. The price of an adult corpse had risen to a highly profitable eight guineas with an even higher fee paid for unusual bodies. Taking advantage of this profit margin, two unemployed Irish labourers, William Burke and William Hare, went on a murderous rampage killing more than 20 people. The killing spree ended when medical students working on the body of a young woman recognised her as Mary, a prostitute 'known' to some of them. They also knew she was young and healthy and there was no reason for her to have died.

The case caused an uproar in Edinburgh. One of the murderers was set free but the other was hanged and, in a cruel twist of fate, ended up on the anatomist's table. The Royal Commission that followed resulted in the creation of the original 1832 Anatomy Act.

Needless to say, the process of using human cadavers has come a long way in the past 200 years. Australia has very strict laws about how human remains are used and treated, with each State and Territory having its own Anatomy Act.

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The Resurrectionists

In Great Britain, anatomists were allowed an annual quota of up to six bodies of convicted criminals. But as the study of anatomy and surgery grew, the demand for extra cadavers increased.

The growing need for additional bodies was first met by a group called the Resurrectionists who robbed graves for bodies, scooting around a loophole in the law that said that a body was not considered 'property'. If they got the body out of the coffin before the grave was covered over they were not desecrating the grave, and as long as they didn't take the shroud or any jewellery on the body, the 'resurrection' was strictly legal.

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What you can donate?

One of the criteria for donating your body is that it must be whole. This excludes people who have had organs removed for organ transplantation, people who have had amputations, or people who have had autopsies performed on their bodies.

I was concerned about this rule because if possible, I want to donate my organs for transplantation, which prevents me from also donating my body for research.

Essentially, what I donate depends on the circumstances of my death. As a young (to the anatomists at least) woman, the chances of me dying a natural death in the next few years are fairly remote. If I die in certain circumstances I can donate my organs for organ transplantation. It is only if the circumstances of my death mean I can't donate my organs, and if my death is not suspicious (so no autopsy) that I can go whole to the anatomy department!

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Organ transplantation

The requirements for live organ transplantation are very strict. Organs must be kept alive and transplanted into the recipient as soon after they are removed from the donor as possible. This means that it is only people on life support systems in hospital who are suitable for this kind of donation.

If a person dies at the scene of a car accident, their organs would be unusable for transplantation by the time they reach the hospital. (The only exception is corneas which do not have a blood supply, and so last longer).

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Donating organs for research

Organs that are not appropriate for transplantation can still be used for medical research. Several research programs in Australia are indebted to people who donate their organs.

The Brain Donor Program is one such program. Run by the University of Sydney with close links to the Prince of Wales Medical Research Institute, it is unique because potential donors are recruited while alive and subjected to various cognitive tests that are repeated at intervals throughout their life to give the researchers a history of their brain's function.

"One of the greatest problems in brain research using brain bank material is access to well characterised normal or control cases," explains Professor Clive Harper, the Director of the program.

Gough Whitlam was the inaugural donor, and the program has had hundreds of people sign up, the oldest being 103. The Lab's Dr Karl Kruszelnicki is also a donor. In the 11 months since its launch, 12 brains have been collected. "Which is phenomenal really when you think about it," says Harper. "We expected in the first year maybe three or four."

Normal brains are kept in a 'bank' so they can be used as controls for other diseased brains that come into the bank (for example, from people with schizophrenia or alcohol damage). Most of the diseased brains are recruited after death from forensic cases. Although based in Sydney, the program is national and will accept brains from all over Australia.

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Donating your whole body

In addition to the criteria of being whole, bodies that have undergone an autopsy cannot be accepted for donation. That's because when the main blood vessels have been severed — a necessity in an autopsy — the embalming fluid cannot flow through the body. As a result, the bodies that end up dissected for anatomical study are almost always old because very few young people die of natural causes.

"The youngest has been 54, but most of them have been in their 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's," explains Gary Richard Whittaker, Senior Laboratory Technician/Prosectionist at the Department of Human Biology at Curtin University of Technology in WA, who prepares cadavers for study.

Obese and emaciated people are also not accepted because often they do not embalm properly, and people with certain communicable diseases are also excluded from donation.

There are several body donation programs around Australia that will allow you to donate your whole body (see list below). When considering a program or institution, keep in mind that institutions will often not pay for the transport of bodies located more than 40km from them, although they will accept the body if the family arranges for its transport. The body must arrive at the institution within three days of death in most cases.

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What happens to your body?

Once a body has been accepted it must be embalmed to preserve the tissues. Embalming involves a cocktail of chemicals, mainly formaldehyde, which fix the body's tissue and stops it from decomposing. Phenol is used as a mould retardant.

Embalming fluid is gravity-fed through one of the main arteries, in the neck or the leg. The body is then kept in a fridge for about three months to allow the formalin to change the proteins in the body so the body doesn't break down.

A technique that is used to preserve bodies in a rigid form is plastination. This involves replacing the natural body fluids with a solid plastic to preserve the tissues. The plastic also makes the tissues rigid, so the corpse can be displayed in any position.

"Plastination is a brilliant way to learn anatomy," says Gary Whittaker, one of Australia's leading plastinators. It is practised at several institutions across Australia.

It takes several months to complete the plastination of a specimen. The tissue is prepared in a 10 per cent formaldehyde solution, and the specimen is then placed in a solvent such as acetone for a month to remove the water content. The solvent is removed and replaced with a liquid polymer in a vacuum chamber and the body is cured by gas in a sealed chamber for a few months.

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Gunter von Hagens

Plastination was invented by German anatomist, Gunter von Hagens in 1977 who uses the technique in his exhibition, Body Worlds, The Anatomical Exhibition of Real Human Bodies — which features partially dissected human and animal bodies.

The exhibition has created great controversy especially since recent events have indicated that not all the bodies are there with the consent of the donor.

The plastination work done in Australia is not comparable to Von Hagen's work. "We don't do anything like Gunter," explains Gary Whittaker. "We work on a much smaller scale, and our laws are different."

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What happens afterwards?

One of the overriding concerns I had about donating my body was what happened to my remains after they have been used. It turns out each Anatomy Act clearly defines what happens to body parts in Australia to ensure the body can be returned whole.

"It's actually quite a process," explains Whittaker. "Every portion is tagged with a unique number. We keep it all and when we send the body back we send everything including all the waste material. So if we have taken all the skin off and the fatty tissue we keep that in bags and freeze it and it all goes back with the body."

Most body donation programs allow the donor to specify what happens to their body after it has been used for study. Depending on the institution the remains will be cremated and the ashes returned to the family, or in some instances, the remains can be returned to the family for burial.

Some institutions offer a regular memorial service for the relatives of donors, which is held to express the students' and the university's gratitude to those people who have donated.

Donors can indicate on the body bequest form if they are happy to have some parts of their body kept indefinitely for teaching. In these cases this body part (such as a hand) may be put in the university's anatomy museum.

The length of time a body will be kept depends on which State or Territory it is in, but it will always be a matter of years.

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So many programs, so little co-ordination

It isn't easy for the researchers either. Each day, different researchers arrive at the Department of Forensic Medicine, looking for brains, corneas, bones or skin.

The Department co-ordinates the contact with the families to reduce the number of calls the family receives requesting donation. Professor Clive Harper thinks that a linked organ donation program would solve many of these problems. "It seems silly to me to have all the different groups down at Forensic Medicine in the morning," he argues.

"The general feeling is that Australia is actually at the forefront of social interaction in terms of donation of body organs," says Harper. "Legal and ethical rules are in place, and most forensic institutes or departments have social workers who contact family members to assist with grief counselling and at the same time raise the subject of retention of organs for research."

This is reinforced by a recent analysis of the figures for the last two years which showed that an astonishing 62 per cent of families agreed to donate their relative's brain when contacted by the Brain Donor program.

Harper has written to Tony Abbott, the Federal Health Minister, suggesting a co-ordinated program. "If we had a national database that had a series of boxes stating 'yes you can have my body for transplant and organs for research', or 'I don't want you to touch my brain' and link that through the Health Insurance Commission (HIC) to the Medicare number, you have the most fantastic database that we could all make use of and stop all this replication of staff and resources," he argues.

Until then, it's back to filling in the forms.

Tags: health, science-and-technology, biology, research, anatomy

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Published 27 May 2004