Willed-Body Donation
Definition
The voluntary, pre-mortem consent by an individual to donate their remains to a specific research programme after death. Distinguished from anatomical donation to medical schools by the nature of use (outdoor decomposition research) and by the explicit consent requirements governing that use.
- Consent type
- Voluntary, pre-mortem consent
- Current status
- The ethical standard for reference collection building
- Research use
- Outdoor decomposition research and forensic studies
Common questions
What is willed-body donation in forensic research?+
Willed-body donation is when a person consents during their lifetime to have their body used for medical or forensic research after they die. It is the current ethical standard for building reference collections because donors have made an informed, explicit choice about how their remains will be used.
How is willed-body donation different from donating your body to a medical school?+
Willed-body donation to forensic research is specifically for outdoor decomposition studies (like those at body farms) and requires donors to consent to that particular use. Anatomical donation to medical schools is for teaching and typically involves different uses, and the consent requirements are distinct.
Why is willed-body donation the ethical standard for forensic research?+
It respects donor autonomy because individuals choose in advance to contribute their remains to research. The explicit consent process is more transparent than older collection methods. However, willed-body donors still tend to be from limited demographic groups, so reference collections built this way may not fully represent all human populations.
Related terms
- Accumulated Degree Days (ADD)
- The sum of daily mean temperatures above a threshold (usually 0 °C) over a period of interest. Used as a measure of...
- AFTER
- Australian Facility for Taphonomic Experimental Research, University of Technology Sydney (2016). First body farm outside the United States; subtropical eastern Australian decomposition...
- Anthropology Research Facility (ARF)
- The first outdoor human decomposition research facility, established by William M. Bass at the University of Tennessee Knoxville in 1981. The foundational...
- Bass Donated Skeletal Collection
- A consent-based skeletal collection of over 1,750 individuals at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, established by William Bass in 1981. All individuals...
- Cadaver Decomposition Island (CDI)
- The localised area of soil and vegetation altered by the decomposition fluids and gases released from a body. A CDI has a...
- Cultural Affiliation (NAGPRA)
- The link, established by a preponderance of evidence, between a present-day tribe or Native Hawaiian organisation and human remains or cultural items...
- Culturally Unidentifiable Remains
- Human remains in US museum and agency collections whose cultural affiliation with any present-day tribe cannot be established by the preponderance-of-evidence standard....
- De Montfort Precedent (2018)
- The return by De Montfort University Leicester of skeletal remains (Asaru-Ojo) to the Ogoni community in Nigeria, conducted voluntarily under the Human...
- FACTS
- Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State, San Marcos Texas. Semi-arid Hill Country climate, providing a third distinct US regional ADD calibration baseline...
- Hamann-Todd Collection
- A skeletal reference collection of approximately 3,100 individuals at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, accumulated 1893 to 1939 from unclaimed bodies...
- Human Tissue Act 2004 (HTA)
- UK legislation governing the use of human tissue for scheduled purposes including research. Any outdoor human decomposition research facility in the United...
- NAGPRA
- The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (Public Law 101-601, 1990), a US federal statute requiring museums and federal agencies to...
Explained in these topics
- NAGPRA, Repatriation and the Ethics of Skeletal Reference CollectionsThe model in which individuals consent during their lifetime to the post-mortem use of their body for medical or forensic research. The current ethical standar...
- The Body Farm Research Stack: ARF Tennessee, STAFS Texas, AFTER Australia and BeyondThe voluntary, pre-mortem consent by an individual to donate their remains to a specific research programme after death. Distinguished from anatomical donation...