BODY DONATION – No box for the geezer!

Skip the box! Choose body donation!

Not only are more people living longer; their  older dying age requires more old bodies for medical schools and their budding gerontologists. Body donation is the key; not, medical students going out late at night to source their own cadaver, as was the custom 100 years ago.

The frugal senior will explore interesting alternatives to funeral homes.

A funeral can cost  $10,000; cremation can cost $2000; even green burial can cost $1000 and all these require more hassle than you want to force on your heirs.

Think body donation; it costs nothing and you can focus on a convenient and cheap memorial service at a convenient time and place.

See the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act and the states in which it has been adopted.

The best bet may be a medical school body donation. Medical students have become quite civilized. You will not be the butt of their jokes and what was you will be treated with respect. It will be your last good deed.

If you are in New Mexico, contact the University of New Mexico. In other states search the medical school website.

The Mayo Clinic says you are never too old to donate your body;  and they will provide you with a copy of their donation form. Click on Mayo Clinic Form.

Your driver’s license may authorize organ donations – make sure this does not conflict with your body donation to a medical school. Medical students need all of you, not just the left-overs.

Carry medical school contact numbers with you. In fact, tape the name and number on the back of your driver’s license.

Have the cremains, after the medical school is through with you, put in a plastic bag; that way they will be around for a thousand years.

Check these two cites:

https://www.mayoclinic.org/body-donation/making-donation

https://hsc.unm.edu/school-of-medicine/cell-biology-physiology/anatomical-donation-program.html

THIINK OLD!