National Body Donor Program

The discoveries responsible for medical breakthroughs don’t just happen. They require a gift that very few offer.

Life-saving procedures and skills are not theoretical, nor are they all learned from information presented by professors or in classrooms and textbooks. The exposure to the kind of learning that body donation offers is unique and invaluable to our future doctors, researchers, osteopathic physicians, and chiropractors.

Medical schools are fully open again and asking us for donors. Please take a moment to learn about this free program and a noble cause for your families and patients.

National Body Donor Program Together We can provide the means to advance humanity Learn More

The word ‘alternative’ seems to be very popular these days. As choices expand to accommodate varied tastes and preferences, the same is true for death care. There once was a time when cremation was considered to be a bizarre and cultish means of disposition, but has grown in popularity to become a completely socially acceptable—even preferred—ritual.

Body donation is following the same path, as it is a viable alternative for exceptional family or belief scenarios; for non-traditionalists who would rather see medical science benefit than their family spending a substantial amount of money on a ritual they’ve never really felt comfortable with, for families with limited or no options for a more traditional method, or in institutional cases where there’s no family whatsoever in the picture to be responsible for disposition.

Are there any costs associated with body donation?
There are no costs for body donation. As the term implies, it is a donation on your part. We will accept the body from any funeral home, however, there may be nominal costs from the funeral home for transportation or paperwork such as death certificates which must be filed by law. If body donation is arranged in advance or the family calls us immediately following a death, we can attempt finding a funeral home that will waive the transportation charges.

Everyone has the potential to contribute to medical breakthroughs; unfortunately, just a few actually do. That’s why body donation is a needed and welcomed gift to society—one that is precious in its nature, and commands respect.

It takes more than textbooks to achieve medical milestones.
The National Body Donor Program is a 501 (c)(3) tax exempt organization, incorporated in the state of Missouri. The program has been supplying cadavers to accredited medical schools around the country since 2001. It's because of the schools we work with that we are able to offer a no cost cremation option to families who may be struggling financially. The family will get a free cremation with body donation.