Consent of the Dead?

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Ok, so I was over at my parent’s house the other day, fixing my brother's computer...and I had the misfortune to seeing some pretty nasty pictures his "instructor" had taken to somehow lean from and not throw up at the same time.

You see, my brother works at the U of U tissue collection bank...removing certain parts of a dead human body for use as a transplant.

Now...personally, when I'm dead, I don't want several pictures of my brain being removed to get to my inner ear, or of my chest cavity being ripped open for my heart...

So how is this controlled? When you sign up to become a donor, do you sign a waiver saying that the organ collection process might be photographed? I highly doubt that they ask permission from the closest living relative.

But maybe I'm making too big a deal of it, but one of the reasons I refuse to ever become a donor is because I don't want there to be any nasty pictures of someone removing my brain or any other organ. And I most defiantly don't want those pictures on someone’s home computer!

Am I the only one who feels this way?

 

I guess I can sort of understand how you feel, but it's not very high on my list of concerns, because, well, I'll be dead by then.

 

I want them to use my organs for transplants when I'm really dead and under such circumstances that no one earns a penny on them. But no stupid photos, yeah. I suppose those who remove organs from dead bodies for later use in transplants have to learn their job somehow, but what you describe is a bit too much. If it were brought to my attention that pictures of my dead relative were taken and stored like that, I would sue.

 

I'm willing to be an organ donor and since I'll be dead I won't care about the photos but I think it is gross and insensitive if the photos can be identified. Not very pleasant for one's survivors to run across that kind of photo of you.

 

I don't know how this is done where you live, but in the Netherlands, when you sign up for becoming a donor, you can also decide to give your body up for scientific purposes when you die. This can be educational purposes, for example, medicine students practising operations or dissections, and I'm sure this also includes photographs for books etc.

 

Hehe, I think it would be kinda cool to have pics of my liver be an educational tool - what a legacy. Especially considering how my liver will probably look interesting by then

 

I think Mesmero brings up a good point. If you sign up to be an organ donor, then you are giving permission to donate your organs upon your death to another living person. I don't think that's the same thing as donating your body to science. And yes, there is an educational need for these pictures. The alternative is to get a whole lot more cadavars for medical school for them to practice on, and then we're talking even more bodies. Basically, as long as they don't take a picture of my face so that I can be easily identified by someone who might have known me, I wouldn't have a problem with it.

 

Oh...I forgot to mention, there is a picture or two of a guy's face, right before they surgically "peel" it forward. *shudder*

Apperently, they do it that way so the guy can still have an open-casket funeral without anyone seeing that his head had been cut open. *shudder*

I hate my brother for showing me those pictures, and I hate myself for staying long enough to see 4 pictures.

If my brother had similar pictures of me once I was dead, I would come back to haunt him.

 

The thought of this doesn't bother me too much because I kind of see the idea for people to learn by and I'm not particulary bothered by things like I find them more interesting than gross.

I personally wouldn't care if somebody was using parts of my body and like dissection and that for educational purposes but thinking from my families perspective I don't think they would appreciate coming across my body in a book after I'd died, or on the internet or on someone's computer. I think that would be too much for them.

But I can see where you're all coming from in a way because if I think about my family or friends coming across me like that thinking about it from their POV I don't think they'd like it at all and I wouldn't personally want them to see me that way if that's how it made them feel.

Though I have no objections really to having my organs donated or my body for scientific purposes.

 

I'm dead and therefore I won't care. People need to learn the trade, I'd prefer pictures over needing more bodies to practice on. I'm both an organ doner and I'm donating my body to science when I die and if they take pictures of the procedure? Well go right ahead, I've never been known to be camera shy

 

I wouldn't care because I was... Dead. I have no problem with others using my organs or my body for learning and scientific purposes, It's not like I need it anymore.

 

Sorry, Tzenkethi anatomy isn't exactly compatible. They even made me put in a self-immolation implant before I came to this backward planet that activates when my brain function stops completely. I can only imagine the field day that the tabloids would have if it didn't work for some reason.

Psst. Don't tell anyone, but I'm donating a human body when I die to avoid suspicion. Poor fellow died of a heart attack and I took his place.

 

Ok, all those who somehow think they will value their body parts or privacy or property when they die, well, umm ..., do something really bad to yourself, but don't die until I can change your mind, ok?
(wow, I just used Ok twice in one sentance and it worked, kinda)
When I'm dead, all I have, including my body, belongs to other people. I won't need it where I'm going.

 

Our physical bodies will rot in the ground anyways, might as well give your body to something useful...

 

Good point, Saber.

 

What if your body is used in re-animation experiments? Not so far fetched these days.

 

Personally, I would prefer that 'iff' I ever decided to donate my body after it is no longer a use to me, that it *only* be given to those that either helped me in life, a total stranger, or a friend of another friend/family member that I matched with, and *no* identifiable parts photograhed!. Otherwise (not intended to sound mean or anything, but) I want everything I was given in place as close as possible.

Granted, I won't care when I am gone, but what if I *were* to have children, then they had children that went to med school and science decided to pickle my head to use it as a visual training aid, then my grand-children were in the class and remembered me as I was, only to see my pickled head in a jar, would that not affect them (this incident actually happened!)??

 

If I became a donor it would be to help people. If photographs were used for educational purposes, that would be okay. For some sickos amusement. Definintely not.

 

Sweet! Second chance at life! AND I'll be famous!

 

The value of a human being is not found in the body, your body is just a there for you to perform your deeds through it.

When physical death happens the spirit and body become separated (the stomach might digest, the blood might flow, the heart may beat, but something that made all of this work, is gone). What happens next is explained a million ways, but until this point we can agree

My point is, you shouldn't be worried what they do with your body when you've left. It's just a pile of meat without the individuality of a human being.

I'd be honored to know that my body will be used to train people to maybe save others whose time has not come yet. So what, my naked body is photographed, why would I care?