This happens a lot after a body is willed to science. Once that is done, the institution getting the body owns it, within certain state determined restrictions. Like any other commodity it can then be bought and sold. It is an ugly trade which most people are completely unaware of.
Corpses as Commodities
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
Same problems with organ donation. You could agree to donate your organs after death but you can’t be guaranteed they will be given to a living person in need of the organ. It could be used for “medical research”, end up in a dumpster or anything in between. I’m in two minds about this and not sure what official Catholic teaching is on donating your body after death.
I suspect the Catholic Church does not oppose donating your body to science. My aunt was a nun and she did that as well as another nun I knew through my aunt.
If I remember correctly, the requirement is that the body be treated respectfully– came up with that guy who turns corpses into art/ freakshow oddities.
https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/what-we-may-and-may-not-do-with-the-body-after-death
One of the better arguments for your attorney to employ heightened specificity in preparing your will and body/organ donations to insure respectful disposition of your remains.
I did have organ donor on my driver’s license until my brother, an ER doc, said get rid of that now! Seems for some organs they have to come from the living donor. No thanks. Our priest said “brain dead” is a misnomer. He and hospital priest chaplain suggested Priests for Life for forms such as Advance Medical Directive, etc