Help Medical Science, Donate Body

              Help medical science, donate body
By SALLY REESE
The Times
Contrary to what some people think,
medical schools do not buy bodies for
education and research purposes.
"Bodies haven't been bought in this
country for many, many years," said Dr.
Richard G. Hibbs, chairman of the
anatomy department at LSU School of
Medicine in Shreveport. "The medical
schools depend on donations or unclaimed
bodies that come through the coroner's
office."
There are various reasons why bodies
are donated, and there are particular
ways to have it done. The donations — and
unclaimed bodies — are fundamental to
teaching freshmen medical students in
gross anatomy and residents in their
chosen specialties.
Most of LSU Medical School's bodies
are predonated, because Shreveport, un-like
large Eastern cities with skid rows
and transients, does not receive many
unclaimed bodies. By being unclaimed,
the bodies are not necessarily uniden-tified,
Hibbs said. They are unclaimed by
relatives for one reason or another.
Right now it is getting some that were
donated when the school was opened, in
1969, when the donors were still alive.
Some of the reasons for donating in-clude
to benefit medical science or to
relieve survivors of the expense of burial.
In Louisiana, persons may donate their
bodies to either the Bureau of Anatomical
Services or one of its member institutions:
Tulane University School of Medicine and
the LSU Schools of Medicine and Den-tistry,
in New Orleans, and the LSU School
of Medicine in Shreveport.
This bureau, formerly the Louisiana
State Anatomical Board, is responsible for
procurement, use and disposition of
human remains donated to medical
science. Its procedure of donation is sim-ple.
In Shreveport, a person can call the
anatomy department at LSU School of
Medicine (674-5312) and get two copies of
the form the bureau issues for anatomical
gifts. Both copies must be signed in the
presence of two witnesses.
One copy is sent to the anatomy depart-ment,
which then issues a wallet-size
donor card The other copy is given to the
closest relative, friend or physician, who
is instructed to report the donor's death
promptly to the Bureau of Anatomical
Services or to the medical school to which
the body was donated.
On this form, the donor not only de-signates
the beneficiary but also specifies
the disposition of remains after they have
served their purpose.
A donor may wish to have the remains
returned to the family after the medical
school is finished with them. In that case,
he/she specifies if they are to be cremated
before return. Otherwise, the dissected
body is sent to LSU Medical Center in New
Orleans where it is cremated and then
LOUISIANA STATE ANATOMICAL BOARD
I:SUMC 1001+0
Date
I hereby donate my body, after death, to the:
• LOUISIANA STATE ANATOMICAL BOARD (If this box is checked your remains will be assigned to one of the member
institutions listed below as needed)
or specifically to: (check one of the following if box above is not checked)
• Tulane University School of Medicine • LSU School of Dentistry
• LSU School of Medicine at New Orleans • LSU School of Medicine at Shreveport
Print Full Name Social Security # Date of Birth
Street Address City State Zip Code
Your Signature Witness #1 Witness #2
I do L~3. do not d], wish my remains to be returned. If you do want your remains returned, do you desire them to be cremated L3
or uncremated LJ?
Give name(s) of individual or Funeral Home to contact for returning your remains:
Name Street Address City State Zip Code Phone #
MAIL ONE COPY TO: Louisiana S t a t e Anatomical Board; Department of Anatomy;
LSU Medical School; P.O. Box 33932; Shreveport, LA 71130
Steps for donating body to a medical school arf in a simple form
buried in a special area in a cemetery.
If the family wishes, the ashes will be
returned without charge, Hibbs said. In
the past, LSU has returned bodies without
cremation, but always indirectly. Un-cremated
bodies are released only to a
funeral director, Hibbs explained.
The Bureau of Anatomical Services
arranges for and pays the cost of delivery
of a body to a member institution if death
occurs within Louisiana or within a 100-
mile radius of the beneficiary school.
"The family calls us and we pick it up
wherever it is, if it has not been embalmed
or autopsied," Hibbs said. "When we ac-cept
a body, we embalm it, then store it in
the morgue until we are ready to use it."
Medical schools will not accept bodies
that have been embalmed or autopsied:
they want to do the embalming
themselves.
"We embalm them to last indefinitely,
because they are not always used im-mediately,"
Hibbs said. "Most we won't
start using using 'til six months after we
get them."
The medical school reserves the right to
accept or reject a body that is offered
after, not before, death. Whether it does or
not depends on how many bodies it has at
the time. Medical schools are under no
obligation to take anatomical gifts;
rather, they take bodies only as they are
needed.
Sometimes LSU School of Medicine re-fers
a predonated body to another institu-tion,
as when a person dies away from
home and the family does not want the
expense of bringing the body back. And
sometimes because it is closer to the place
of death, it will accept a body that has
been donated to another school, again as a
convenience to the family.
LSU is getting "just about what we need
now." It uses 40 to 45 bodies a year in both
medical research and medical training,
Hibbs reported.
"It's the only way to know what makes
up a person," Hibbs commented. "There
are pictures, but they're not the same as
the real thing."
LSU assigns numbers to the bodies but
keeps a record of identities. ("So, if we
return ashes to somebody, they will be the
correct ashes," Hibbs said.)
They are regarded as "somebody's
body." They are kept covered when not
being used, Hibbs said, and nobody except
students and faculty is allowed in the
place where they are. "They are treated
with respect," he said.
On the door to the dissecting room is a
brass plate — a gift from the Class of '79
— etched with Latin words that profound-ly
express the reason why.
"Mortui Vivos Docenti." The dead teach
the living.