How to donate your body after death

Фото: Depositphotos

In the US, 95% of the adult population supports voluntary organ donation after death and is in favor of donating its organs after death or during life in case of need from their loved ones. In America today, according to the foundation Donate life america, one of the highest rates of donors per million inhabitants in the world - about 45 people. Because an American knows from school: one donor after death can save up to 8 lives.

Patricia Kelly witnessed the birth of the donor system in the United States almost half a century ago. And now she herself has reached the moment when she needs to decide whether to donate the body of a loved one to science. Her husband, William, succumbed to dementia. What happened after his death inspired her, and then their daughter, not only to do the same, but also to become ardent advocates for the idea of ​​organ donation, he writes. Chicago Tribune.

Bequeath science

William Kelly suffered from several diseases at once and wanted science to study them in more detail. Therefore, he bequeathed his body to scientists. Kelly died on 2011, and his wife Patricia died on 2015. After death, both became part of an unusual program at Northwestern Indiana University at Gary. The program provides anatomy training, and the results of the research are sent to the donor's relatives.

“Mom treasured the letters she received from students in the International Human Remains Anatomy Program,” says daughter Susan Ellingsen of Munster, Indiana. “She took a large magnifying glass (Patricia was legally blind) and read them over and over again. The letters were very personal and told of all the discoveries about my father. Mom made a video in which she told students why she, too, donated her body to science.

You can find out which medical schools in the US are participating in an organ donation program at the official Onlineuniting these programs.

Among the donors are educators, scientists and law enforcement officers who understand the importance of a practical study of the human body to investigate crimes and search for missing people or bodies. Some will make their bodies go to study how quickly predators eat a person, or how high or low temperatures affect decomposition. Others ask that search dogs be trained on their bodies.

Know what death smells like to search for the living

One of these dogs belongs to Lisa Briggs, a professor of criminology at West Carolina University. She began to teach her golden retriever Layla at the age of 7,5 weeks. Two-year-old Laila has already found 3 bodies and several living people.

Lisa Briggs and Laila are looking for missing people. Photo from the archive of Lima Briggs.

Briggs says she was very lucky to teach Layla on the bodies of people who, after death, bequeathed themselves to forensic science, because synthetic remains or even body parts (for example, teeth or placenta) are not enough to train.

“Drug-detecting dogs are trained on one scent, such as marijuana. But with people, the situation is more complicated - there are so many different smells depending on what was worn, whether it was cold or hot, whether the person was taking medication, whether he drowned, Briggs explains. “Not everyone understands how important it is for dogs to be able to take all these factors into account.”

Material side

Sometimes the decision to bequeath the body or organs is made because of the material side of the matter. Many programs pay transportation costs, conduct a memorial service, or return cremated remains.

Judy Clemens of Hebron, Indiana, has decided that she wants to bequeath the body to the institute so that he will bear all the costs associated with her death. She suffered from a progressive form of multiple sclerosis and wanted her body to be studied and better understood this disease after death.

As the granddaughter of Judy, Brittany Winn, told, the grandmother herself registered as a donor, having passed the selection. You may be surprised to learn this, but it turns out that not everyone can claim that the institute or program will bear all costs. As a rule, such programs do not accept the bodies of victims of severe accidents, people with infectious diseases or remote organs, and in some programs there are weight restrictions.

Brittany Wynn (left) and her Judy Clemens. Photo by Brittany Wynn.

How to declare that you want to donate your organs

You can declare that you want to donate organs when you receive or renew your driving license. If you do not have a driver's license or you do not want to wait for the replacement period, you can register on the official Online donors or Online the non-profit organization United Network for Organ Sharing, which links donors and those who are waiting for help. In both cases, the data fall into the national registry of donors.

The donor can make targeted donations. If a dying person knows about a seriously ill patient who needs a kidney, he can bequeath his organ after death to this particular person.

Any fee for donating organs is illegal in the USA. If a person who has not yet 18 years leaves his life, the decision on the donation is taken by his parents. If, during his lifetime, the person did not indicate whether he wants to become a donor, the decision is taken by his immediate family.

120 thousand Americans today are waiting for donors in order to survive. Of these, 2 are children. In 091, there were just over 2006 thousand names in this queue. The waiting list is replenished with one name every 85 minutes. 10 Americans die every day due to a shortage of donor organs.

See also:

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Replanted American Meets Donor Family

The organ donation program has attracted FBI attention in 3 states

For the first time, a penis transplant was successful.

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