The Great Recession changed the way many people live—and its repercussions appear to be altering how some people choose to die.

At least two prominent tissue banks have seen an increase in the number of individuals who are interested in donating their bodies to research in exchange for a break in funeral costs.

The Banner Sun Health Research Institute near Phoenix typically receives some 1,000 inquiries every year about making donations. That number has increased by 15 percent since the beginning of the recession in 2008, and a waiting list for donors has lengthened. “People have less valuation in their 401Ks, and on top of that their home values started to take a hit, so they started to look at alternative ways [of making death arrangements],” says Brian Browne, a spokesperson for the institute, which uses the donated tissue for research on Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, among other disorders. Savings from for­going cremation costs can range between $1,000 and $1,500.

The Anatomy Gifts Registry, a non­profit in Glen Burnie, Md., that supplies tissue for medical research, has seen donor calls increase from 150 to 250 a month to as many as 400. “People are turning to this option because of the high cost of funerals,” says Brent Bardsley, the registry’s executive vice president, who also attributes the uptick to the downturn. Bardsley has even talked to undertakers trying to help desperate families unable to afford the full costs of a funeral. A small savings on last arrangements could trans­late into a valuable contribution for science.

This article was originally published with the title Donate Your Brain, Save a Buck.

2 Comments

1. 1. Daniel35 05:55 PM 1/4/11

   It wouldn't save me or family much money because we intend to pay as little as possible. I'd prefer to be paid the full value of my whole body, whatever that may be, in advance, for whatever purpose, at least as fertilizer.

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

2. 2. Didonai 06:50 PM 1/5/11

   The so called nonprofits that provide human tissue for medical research is actually quite profitable... and the centers where human tissue is sliced and diced is very much a manufacturing setting where assembly lines chop cadavers into neatly shrink wrapped portions weighed and tagged for delivery to HIGH paying institutions providing necessary training for interns and resident medical professionals who simply cannot risk injury to a patient without much practice on organs and tissue outsourced from the dead. Of course, the dead do not complain about bedside (tableside) manner either. The human tissue/organ supply industry is an immensely profitable enterprise that has its own history of abusers and criminal elements such as the funeral homes in NJ that stole corpses for chopshop processing and delivery to high paying customers... Its a joke to call it nonprofit... absolutely incorrect.

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this