So Much for donating your body to science ;)

[Jon P. Inghram]

A "conventional" use for donated bodies is teaching anatomy, hard to beat dissecting an actual person.

My mom wants to be buried in a trash bag, no point spending God knows how much money on a fancy coffin that costs a signficant portion of a new car.

[bsdgeek]

Some companies were buying the parts to do research for prosthetics, like replacement knees and such.

[High_Jumbllama]

TechTV has a "Tech of" footwear episode once in which a company was using dead feet to test the footwear to check damage on the feet when under different repeated stresses. They all seem like good reasons except for the selling part.

[Chrono_Wanderer]

Originally posted by Podfrog
the human body has always had a price tag, though usually for useable living organs

depends on who you are, really... and perhaps what country you live in.
To those business guys, sure, the human body has a price tag.
But for my own body, I see myself not having a price tag. Or should I ask you this: "how much can I buy you?" In this case,
please ask yourself this, how much do you worth. Maybe you have an answer, but personally, I don't.

Originally posted by Podfrog and furthermore, why would anyone care what happened to their corpse? you're dead, remember?

depends on what religion (if any) you believe in. Traditionally I do know Chinese have their bodies burried, to sort of "remember" or "honour" the loved ones for what they have accomplished in a life time etc, its more "philosophical", if you know what i mean. There is no real "application" in burying, but I think its a way to show your dedication to your loved ones...

[Belwarrior]

The university paid National Anatomical Service, a New York-based company that distributes bodies nationwide, less than $1,000 a body to deliver surplus cadavers, thinking they were going to medical schools in need of corpses. The anatomical services company sold seven cadavers to the Army for between $25,000 and $30,000, said Chuck Dasey, a spokesman for the Army's Medical Research and Materiel Command in Fort Detrick, Maryland. The bodies were blown up in tests on protective footwear against land mines at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio.

Look from the money viewpoint, the middleman are getting the money.. can u imagine, i donate my body for medical science and the good professor if he couldnt use my cadaver has to PAY someone to move me to another science institute (i didnt know a dead body is worth around a grand {morbid } hell!!! i might even sell directly to the military for $20,000 and i am sure my children could use the cash) and that middleman is earning lots of money