Who knew every inch of him: Donating your body to medical science

Dana Robinson is now a medical student, the daughter of a retired family doctor, Aubrey Gould, who passed away in the fall and had donated his body to UMass Medical Center.

At the conclusion of the gross anatomy class in the spring, most medical schools have a memorial ceremony for the cadavers. UMass invites the families of the donors to attend, as medical students honor what they call the "ultimate gift." Dana explains why she attended the ceremony: "I wanted to know who worked on my dad – who knew every inch of him, without knowing who he was." She said that meeting the students who dissected her father's body was one of the best experiences of her life. "They took care of him and they treated him with respect. I could sense how much it meant to them," she said.

Advice: Arrange now to donate your body to a medical school or organ transplantation center so others will benefit.

Read an organ donor’s story.

Thanks to Tara Ballanger for the source article in the G Section of the Boston Globe of August 17.