I recently came across this article about a woman in Philadelphia whose son’s body was not properly returned to her.
Mary Anderson’s son died of complications from a lung infection, so she authorized an autopsy to determine exactly what he died of. When his body was returned, all of his organs had been removed. She found out later that they had been harvested for educational purposes without her consent; no one seems to know what happened to them.
In Ontario, your attorney (if you have a power of attorney) can discuss organ donation prior to your death, if you are incapacitated; after your death, your executor can determine whether your body may be donated for medical research. While, as is obvious from this story, sometimes the wishes are not properly followed, at the very least you want to ensure that the right person is making decisions that are right for you.
