• In the early 1800s grave robbers in Britain and Scotland were called resurrectionists.



• In Britain it was illegal for surgeons to practice on cadavers until 2006. Crazy- absolutely insane.



• Yes, just watched a BBC documentary.



• I don't know which is worse- governments saying due to critical shortages corneas etc were removed without family permission or the absolute tragic waste of people denying the use of same from their dead family members. Instead of coddling every citizen over every irrational fear and superstition I wonder if it wouldn't be better if a spokesperson said,"Look, you're dead at that point- you won't care. People are suffering and dying due to ignorance and superstition..."


• Every member of my family are total body donors- yes especially my children.


• Supposedly there was a case at a teaching hospital near me where a med student was learning surgery techniques and the cadaver they brought out for her class was a long lost uncle who died in a shelter in the same city. Sounds urban legend-ish I know, but I personally know a professor from the same school who will tell you it's true and as part of an ethics exercise the case was addressed in a class I took in college.


• Companies have been busted for illegally selling body parts they were supposed to have cremated. This has caused people to start wringing their hands in absolute and  abject holy horror. That is fine- well and good, want to end practice of same? Flood the market with essentially 100% body donation of appropriate candidates.


• The Catholic Church banned autopsies and human dissection of any kind for hundreds of years calling it an abomination and desecration etc.  which is odd, since from front to back the Bible teaches the body is a shell and nothing more for the soul. They should have championed the use of corpses and taught the frailty of life and where the soul goes after death etc. Odd, very odd and it would be impossible to overstate how much this strange viewpoint has damaged mankind and how far back it set medicine and other sciences.