Full body donation: What it means to donate your body to science and how it works

Donating your body to medical science means it is used to benefit medical teaching and research. Donor bodies are used to teach medical and other health science students the relationship between systems and the structure of the human body

The use of human bodies as the basis of the study of human anatomy has been the cornerstone of medical training and research for more than 400 years. 

Organ donation and transplantation save lives. It’s nearly six months since the Human Tissue Act came in to effect on June 17, stating that if you are aged 18 or over, and you don’t specify otherwise, you will be considered a potential organ donor. But what happens if, in a final act of altruism, a person wishes to go one step further and gift their body to science following death?

Maeve Williams in Rathfarnham, Dublin, has helped three close relatives enter the donor programme over the past 12 years. Williams was also named as next-of-kin and the person of contact for all family members.