Body Donation: Legal Aspects, Procedures and Precuations

After death, the dead body is disposed of by the relatives of the deceased as early as possible. Body donation campaigns & social awareness for the donation of the corpse initiated the process of body donation. Body donation is an act of giving one’s body after death for medical research and education and these donated bodies remain a principal teaching tool for medical educators. The Anatomy ACT of 1949 gives guidelines regarding use of dead bodies for educational purposes to be utilized by medical colleges. In the previous era the coroner use to certify the unclaimed dead bodies of the deceased who died of natural diseases and handed them over to the medical colleges for studies and research purposes . Since the coroner act is abolished the guidelines are given through the Anatomy ACT and various circulars of the home department about which awareness is a must among the people working in various medical colleges and hospitals/institutes, where there is a crunch of dead bodies for medical study or research purpose.