April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
ALBANY MEDICAL COLLEGE
A final gift: donating one's body to science
A final gift: donating one's body to science
AMC's Anatomical Gift Program "is basically whole body donation," said Julie Carpenter, coordinator of the program. There are more than 10,000 potential donors in the program's database; about 250 of them pass away each year, leaving their bodies to the college.
The Catholic Church does permit whole body donation. In 2014, Pope Francis said that even the donation of organs is "a testimony of love for our neighbor."
A local Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet agrees. Preferring not to give her name, the 87-year-old said she signed up for the Anatomical Gift Program more than a decade ago, joining several other members of her order who are participating.
Because the Sisters of St. Joseph are dedicated to education, she believes this is the ultimate way to help students. "I'm going to heaven anyway, so it's alright," she remarked.
How it works
The Anatomical Gift Program allows donors to sign up at any point in their lives. The program is simple, Ms. Carpenter said: Donors only need to sign a few papers and give a brief medical history and some family information.
After the donor passes, family members are asked to contact the Anatomical Gift Program office. A funeral home brings the body to AMC. Students then use it in classes such as human anatomy. v Aware of the donor's identity and brief history, it serves as an unique experience for the students, Ms. Carpenter told The Evangelist.
When the students have learned all they can from the donor, the body is cremated, which is permitted by the Church. The remains go to one of three places, pre-chosen by the donor: to a family member, to Albany Rural Cemetery or to St. Agnes Cemetery in Menands.
Catholic choices
The Church asks that Catholics' remains be interred, rather than kept by a family member. Since 1983, Albany Diocesan Cemeteries has been offering donated plots for donors' remains.
Each urn is buried in an individual grave, with room for a loved one to be cremated and interred alongside, as well. The remains are interred in what St. Agnes Cemetery's "resurrection herb garden," an area used solely for cremated remains.
To date, St. Agnes has welcomed 474 interments from the AMC program. The graves can be marked with a bronze memorial and a vase for flowers.
Mr. Conti told The Evangelist that the site has about two years until it is full; after that, donors' remains' will be interred in a different location in the cemetery.
Each year, when donors' remains are returned, "we have a small service here in the cemetery," said Michael Conti, service manager at St. Agnes. He stressed that it is important for people to know they can participate in the body donation program and still have a proper Catholic burial.
In memoriam
At the memorial service, AMC students talk about the work they did with the donors and what they learned. Employees of the college also speak on their respect for the donors.
"It makes it more personal" for the families, Ms. Carpenter said: "It's not just a number. It's someone, somebody's grandmother. She plays piano; she was a seamstress. It's very meaningful for the families and for the students."
This year's memorial service was held in August, with Deacon Frank Thomas of Our Lady of Grace parish in Ballston Lake, who is also a doctor, presiding.
AMC student Jonathon Miller, who was about to graduate and become a physician's assistant, told anatomical gift donors' loved ones that the donors have helped future patients even more than him and his classmates, because the training the donors' gift helped to provide will enable understanding and diagnosis of illnesses.
The diocesan Cemeteries Office also highlights its "appreciation and respect for the sacrifice that these individuals and their families have made for medical science" at each year's memorial service.
Ms. Carpenter said that, in many cases, several members of a family will find out about the Anatomical Gift Program and sign up together. That was the case for the anonymous Sister of St. Joseph, whose brother will also donate his body to AMC.
The sister said her family is very supportive of her decision to sign up. After she passes and her body helps to educate AMC students, her remains will be returned to her religious order to be buried, alongside other Sisters of St. Joseph, in the cemetery at St. Joseph's Provincial House in Latham.
"It's wonderful," she said of the program. "I think it's worthwhile to help people."
(For more information, go to www.amc.edu/anatomicalgift.)
250 X 250 AD
250 X 250 AD
Events
250 X 250 AD
Comments:
You must login to comment.