We think outside of the box here at Sheppard Law. I have done more than my fair share of celebration of life and funeral service authentic acts for folx. Some of them included curating playlists for the person whose will I was doing. Other times, I've been tasked with writing the obituary for my client.
When thinking about estate planning, most folx may not think about donating their body to science. In order to donate your body to a specific program here in Louisiana, you have to do some homework before you pass on.
This includes filling out particular forms with the right program you want to donate to.
The head honcho of donating your body to a particular science program is the Bureau of Anatomical Services. They have a standard form you can snag here.
You can also pick the program you want to go to and fill out their forms. I highly recommend doing this if you want your body to be used by LSU or Tulane, in particular.
If you donate your body to science, you cannot also donate your organs! You must choose to be an organ donor or donate your body to science, but you cannot do both. This is why there is a state registry so there is no overlapping of either. However, you can ask that your eyes be donated to the agency and the remainder of the organs donated as normal.
If you move out of state, you must revoke your donation and make arrangements with a program in your new state.
Nope. The Uniform Anatomical Gift Act trumps any objections of your family, so long as you have completed the appropriate forms and gotten your "yellow card" back. As a practical point, I keep that card AND your application in my file just in case.
There are certain reasons why a program may reject your donation. These are some of those reasons which are the opinion of BAS and not us, y'all.
The last reason is that the Program director at LSU or Tulane or the President of the BAS determines your body is unusable.
These programs are used in these programs for education and research.
We make it easy to handle the donation of your body BEFORE you pass away so that your wishes are followed.
But most programs won't accept a body if next of kin are objecting to it.
So here are some ways to make the process smoothers:
Contact us at Sheppard Law at 985-265-7069 (call or text) to schedule a paid consultation or request an estate planning packet.
Our estate planning package includes Body Donation services along with will, living will, durable power of attorney, and medical power of attorney in a discounted package.
