Of course I would donate my body to science!!!! I have even done this while I am alive! I do tests at Wash U for cash sometimes. They can’t figure me out! Perhaps it is because I lie and cheat…..

However, I do want a Viking funeral….perhaps they could do the experiments on me right after I perish, and then the scientists could build a raft-bonfire, set me aflame, and then set me adrift in the Northern Sea.

Republicans don’t like Vikings much (’cuz they are considered Pagans) and they don’t like science much either.

Sure, when I’m done with it whoever wants it can have at it.

Heck yes! I’ve actually sent in the paperwork to have my body donated to the very same thing. After I’m dead, my body is useless to me. I also really don’t want to have my body buried, rotting away and taking up space. I really can’t think of a better option than donating my body to science and learning.

Yes I would donate my body to science. Legitimate science, which bodyworlds is not. Legitimate science gathers knowledge, builds upon that knowledge to gain new knowledge, and passes it along.

Bodyworlds is simply entertainment, albeit of a particularly peculiar variety … sort of like a Tim Burton movie on crack. For what seems like forever the science center has taken out ads to publicize this exhibit - each of the ads that I saw show contorted bodies in goofy poses, often with parts of their body arranged in ways to simulate parts they never had in real life.

Maybe a better term would be performance art … except that the artist is using other people’s bodies. Perhaps these people thought they would be contributing to the advancement of science … but too bad for them they’ve grown wings and look like props from a bad movie.

@1 - grow up.

@3 and Jim Bilderback - I hope that you find a better use for your body after your passing - like maybe some real science.

Donating one’s body to science and donating one’s body to a freak show are two entirely different things. “Body Worlds” disturbs me on some deep gut reaction level. I find myself looking away from even the ads. No, I’m not squeamish. I’m not one of the kids who fainted in dissection lab. But there’s just something about this exhibit…maybe the fact that it’s for money…maybe that its creator has some views about death/no afterlife that speak volumes. To me the whole thing is blatantly obscene.

But that’s just my feeling. If people go to see this exhibit and come away enlightened, good for them. If people want to donate their bodies to this sort of venue, that’s fine with me too. Just don’t call it “science.”

Actually bodies can be donated to a place in Tennessee where they have your body laid out on the ground and they can learn a lot for police work on how to tell how you died and how long it takes for your body to rot.It is a very interesting place.I however would never allow my body to be treated like that because I am Catholic and believe in burial or cremation.

You can google to see what that place is all about.I forgot the name of it. You must pay to have your body shipped though.

re bob (4) Hey, I would even donate my body for entertainment purposes, unlike you! I see the benefits of immaturity and irresponsibility. I don’t wanna become some boring and very negative mechanized serf with a $4000 monthlybill for various child support payments!

#7 - “Mecha Serf” - That’s a classic!

Anyway, I’ve pondered this off and on for the majority of my life. In my youth, I leaned toward donating my body to science. I felt it would do some good by teaching people or being used for research. As I’ve grown older, I realize what an industry the body trade has become. Everything has value, even your dead body, and lots of people will profit from it.

Oddly, it’s not the thought of people profiting off my body (or parts of it) that really bothers me, it’s the complete lack of respect I feel is shown these bodies. I know it’s just a shell now, but at one point that was someones brother or sister, mother or father, son or daughter. And they had friends and acquaintances , people who knew them and cared about them. I think about me donating my body to science, intending it to be used by a medical school to train doctors. Unfortunately, if they have enough bodies, they could sell mine to whoever – I could end up “plasticized” and put on display in some macabre freak show. What if my wife were to see my body in that display? My daughters?

No thank you. The more I think about it, the more I lean toward cremation – the modern equivalent of Rob’s Viking funeral. At least my family could be at peace that my body is not ‘entertaining’ people in some traveling ‘medical show’.

Not until I’m dead.

I think organ donation is a better use for my remains. I’m in rob’s corner. Salvage what you can, burn the rest.