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Originally Posted by ChuckF
“Donating a body to science” is a nice idea, to think that somebody is getting some utility out of it, but it’s more logistically difficult than one would think. They need to be timely alerted to death so they can begin all the necessary procedures and usually requires dying in a hospital in or near the recipient facility.
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You say that, but:
The pandemic has caused a shortage of cadavers | The Economist
and
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Surgical training is suffering as a result
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I immediately thought of a business idea ... but have not checked it with a lawyer.
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Though supply is constrained, demand for corpses has been growing as the numbers training to be doctors have increased. In 2005, medical schools bought 600 cadavers; in 2017, 1,300. Given both rising demand and supply constraints, it is perhaps surprising that arms and legs do not cost an arm and a leg. Nor do heads: the going rate for one in America is around $500; a foot is $350 (prices are similar in Britain).
Covid-19 has made things trickier still. Body donation in Britain paused, since no one was certain whether bodies would be infectious.
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And they are fussy:
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Bodies are rejected for a large number of reasons, including being too thin (not enough to dissect); too fat (anatomy tables have weight limits); too tall (cadavers come inconveniently off the ends of those tables) and for having a large unhealed wound (the embalming fluid pours out).
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