Leaving a Leg(acy): Donating Your Body and Brain to Science
By Stephanie Wasiuk, Biology, 2017
People always say “I want to make a difference in the world, leave it better than I found it.” Most probably have something flashy in mind, like pulling the entire homeless population out of poverty or solving the world’s energy crisis. These are great goals, but there’s a much simpler way to make an impact after the time of death. In recent news, retired US national women’s soccer player Brandi Chastain announced that she will be donating her brain to science. Other athletes, including Ken Stabler of the 1970–1979 Oakland Raiders and the Patriot’s own Ted Johnson have done the same.
These stories are inspirational to many, but what actually is the process of donating one’s brain or body to science and once it is donated, how can it make a difference?
Samples of both healthy and diseased patients are needed. The diseased tissue is compared with the control, or healthy tissue, which can tell scientists and medical researchers a lot about what may be causing the disease and how it can affect other tissues.
One of the leading institutions for full body donation is called Science Care. Once the donor has passed, the caretaker can make arrangements to donate the body starting with a simple phone call. All transportation and legal aspects are taken care of by the institution. The full body can be donated to medical schools for instruction or only partial tissue may be donated, with the rest of the body being cremated at no cost and returned to the family within 3–5 weeks.
One of the major brain banks is the NIH NeuroBioBank. Brains can be donated and collected up to 24 hours after the time of death. Brain donors are still eligible to be organ donors or full body donors, or can be returned to their families and cremated or buried as normal.
Either type of donation will make a significant impact on research and the health of future generations.
