Man donates mother's body to science, discovers it was sold to the military for "blast testing"

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Sweet baby Eisenhower, this doesn’t have nearly enough likes!

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Not sure how it is in America, but where I am, when you donate your body to science, you don’t get a say in how it is used. There is no ‘opt out of explosives’ or stuff like that.

So you don’t get choose what happens to your remains if you make a donation? Yeesh, that sounds terrible!

The only boxes that were checked were the ones that fit the scientific study the military were doing, they got the body.

Not sure where you got that impression. That’s not what happened here. From the original article (linked above):

The Biological Resource Center in Phoenix picked up Doris Stauffer’s body within 45 minutes of her death and her son signed paperwork that specified what could and could not be done with the body.

and…

Stauffer said he specifically marked “no” on a box that would have authorized medical tests involving explosions to be performed.

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Out of a cannon nonetheless.

Interested, newsletter, etc.

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None yet, but I’m working on a pitch, like maybe “Why sit around looking at a box or an urn, when you can feel your dearly departed literally raining down upon you with their presence?”

Going to send this to my mum.

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How much of that is his recollection? Especially within 45 minutes of her death.
And no. It’s not terrible. I think it’s fantastic and good!
Why?
Because how do we determine what is good science? How much do you know we’ll gain from an experiment that may sound terrible. I don’t know. For all I know, putting my body through a woodchipper may achieve some fantastic results! Sounds horrible doesn’t it. But what if the result was of a greater good.
How many people do you know would say “sure. whack my body through a woodchipper when I die!”

But…
What about the benefits to forensic science? Is it worthwhile then?

Now. I have since learned that the organization that did this was kinda (lots of) dodgy. This sucks.
I hate the idea of some of the things they did.
BUT… If they published their results and provided information that benefited society? Well. Not all forgiven, but certainly interested in the results.

I want my body to:

  1. Go to donations. Simple as that. If there is nothing left of me to bury because everything got used? FANTASTIC! Do it.
  2. Go to science. Do whatever you want to my body when I die. Explode it. Burn it. Cut it to pieces. Smash it with hammers. If anything at all comes from it that benefits society? BRILLIANT.

I do not want a single bit of my body buried if my dead carcass can benefit society.

I’d even let my body get used in horrible Nazi experiments IF it is done in the name of science. Even if the result is “That didn’t work”. Sometimes science is just working out what didn’t work.

I have zero problems with what her body was used for.

The son was given the opportunity to have some limited control over what happens to her body and he was essentially lied to. Many people will have negative reactions to hearing how this all went down and it could convince even more people to not donate their bodies. This guy has done more damage to science than he is solving, he is sabotaging the entire process.

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