Body Donations in Japan
In recent years, the donations of bodies to medical universities in Japan has dramatically increased. Some say this is due to a change in attitudes toward death in the country, while others contend it is due to the number of older people without families to take care of their remains after death.
In 1985, about 68,000 people offered to donate their bodies to medical universities after death, compared with 296,000 as of March 31, 2018, according to Tokushi Kaibo Zenkoku Rengokai, an association set up to encourage this practice, which is known as kentai in Japanese.
One of the reasons why few people offered to donate their bodies in the past was the taboo of Japan's Buddhist heritage against damaging bodies after death. According to Kentai Association executive director and Kyorin University anatomy professor, George Matsumura, attitudes toward death are changing. One reason he gives is Japan's numerous natural disasters. He said that witnessing the deaths of family and friends in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami made people more conscious of wanting to decide the endings to their lives.
Signing up to donate one's body is simple. The person registers to donate with a university and receives a body donation card. After death, family members or someone close to the deceased must contact the university to claim the body. After the body is used in dissection classes, the body is cremated. Medical school professors stress the importance of the hand-on approach to teaching anatomy to students. About 15 universities in Japan, including Hokkaido University and Kumamoto University have stopped accepting offers of bodies due to lack of capacity for storage. About 4,000 bodies are dissected annually at 98 universities in Japan.
What do you think the situation is where you live? Are people reluctant to donate their bodies or are there too many donations? I'm curious about how this works in other countries.
7 comments:
I think donating is a great idea, especially if someone has died due to a health problem, not old age.
Our neighbors both have donated their bodies after they die, one is suffering from cancer the other bone problems.
I will be donating mine.
Catherine
In our country organ donation is always encouraged. A friend’s mother asked if her body could be donated to science, they said no, they have too many on the list and she is very healthy. I am donating my organs, but not my eyes....
I never asked about donating to science, but I have signed to be an organ donor.
I don't know about body donation either, but my organs, if they are any use, are to be donated.
I have no idea what the situation is in Sweden, but I expect it is quite common to donate one's own body. Organ donations are common, too, I would think.
This is an important topic to address. How kind of people to help medical professionals get hands on experience to help others in the future.
I don't know about body donations, but I recently read a great book (From Here to Eternity - Traveling the World to find the Good Death by Caitlin Doughty) that talks about how people in different countries deal with their dead, and that also had a lengthy chapter about how the views have changed in modern Japan vs. some years ago. It was super interesting (and I adore Caitlin Doughty).
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