By Eliana Miller
Donating your body to scientific research is an important part of learning more about the human body. If someone were to pass away due to a rare condition and donate their body to science, we may be able to help those down the line who may be suffering from something similar if not the same. Donating your body to science is important and crucial for the development of medication, surgeries, a better understanding of how the body works, and for a variety of other reasons. Of course, participating in scientific research isn’t for everyone. However, both pros and cons exist for everything.
When your body is donated for scientists to analyze, medical students get to discover and learn more about the human body. This helps students learn more about anatomy and physiology. Letting students learn hands-on is a major benefit for the future so your future surgeons know what it feels like to cut or cauterize a real person before actually doing anything.
Another huge advantage to donating your body to science is researchers get to pick apart and study diseases that affect humans and help find cures or preventions. Some of these diseases that can be studied are Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Helping study these diseases could help so many people in the future, so donating your body is a truly selfless act of courage. Of course, so is organ donation. However, being buried or cremated is not selfish.
Some people may be organ donors on their driver’s license, which is awesome! When you are an organ donor and you part with organs that could be used for others, you are helping save lives! Just like donating your body to science, donating it to help save people in the moment is also a truly selfless act. So how do you pick one over the other?
Luckily, there is no right or wrong answer as to what you choose to donate your body to! If you wanted, you could even donate your body for both! This is not to say that donating your body to research or other things is a necessity or always possible. Wanting to be cremated or buried (or needing to because your body was too sick to donate) is also a completely valid and amazing option. You get to help those in your life know that they laid you down to rest in the way you wanted, helping give them a bit more peace of mind.
So, donating your body to science or organ donation is not a necessity, and is not always possible. Being cremated or buried helps people gain peace of mind and feel a bit better. Either way, you could be helping people around you in the world. You can still be selfless after death no matter what you decide.
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