Body donations in Shanghai rise as new attitudes prevail(2)

Great shortage

"When the fellowship society was founded in 2009, there was a great shortage of bodies being donated for study in medical schools and hundreds more were needed every year," explained Lu Xiuzhen, the society president.

Over the years with the Red Cross and the society's volunteers helping, the people of this suburban area have begun to change their attitudes towards body and organ donations.

The volunteers are average people but have been inspired to take up this cause, even personally helping some of the older people in their neighborhoods fill out the forms.

Zhu Peiling is the secretary-general of the Jiading Red Cross branch and said she was moved by the way the volunteers had taken up the cause and local people had got involved.

"They want their last act to be helping medical research. They think it's a waste of space using vast areas of land as cemeteries. They would rather leave the fields open for their children. Most don't want their ashes kept. And those who have been helped in the past want to help others," she said.

Usually when an enrolled donor dies family members will contact the medical schools or hospitals' body reception stations, or they can call the Red Cross. "Some of our volunteers have even gone to homes on the Chinese New Year when a donor has died and helped the family. Because of the dedication of our volunteers the number of donations has been increasing greatly," Zhu said.

The volunteers and their group leaders stay closely in touch with the donors, visiting them and arranging events for them. "They pay special attention to the older donors who can contract diseases. If any of the donors falls ill the volunteers visit them regularly."

Funerals organized

Qu Dawo is the vice-president of the fellowship society and said that although the body donation program in Shanghai was the best in the country, the donation rate was still low when the total population was taken into account. He said the procedure for handling a donor's death was simple and straightforward. When a donor dies, a family member can call the nearest body reception station, which will send staff to collect the body and organize a funeral ceremony.

Qu's brother who lived in Yunnan Province and was not a donor died recently. His nephew wanted all the relatives in Shanghai to go to Yunnan for the funeral service and Qu and others found this difficult to organize. But families of body donors don't have to worry about organizing funeral services - the body reception stations can provide simple ceremonies with appropriate professional assistance.

Qu's family has certainly adopted his outlook. Qu, his wife, his father-in-law and his son have all enrolled as body donors. In Jiading, a man named Jiang Naiping and 13 of his family were registered as body donors after Jiang's elder brother donated body when he died in 1993.

"In the beginning, most children won't agree with their parents' plans to donate their bodies because they are concerned about other people's opinions. They are afraid of being regarded as disrespectful. But after lot of explanation and persuasion, many of the young people come to accept their parents' wishes," Qu said.

Although there have been many instances where families veto a proposed body donation there have also been five cases where volunteers have to talk to families where a person is being kept alive artificially and persuaded them to donate the body.

At present it is estimated that the six Shanghai medical schools need about 700 bodies every year for students to study and learn anatomy and for now the number of bodies being donated in the city can keep up with this demand. But there is a form of inequity in this system.

At the Shanghai Medical College of Fudan University's body reception station, two staff members are assigned to be on call 24 hours a day. Usually they will remove a body from the home within three hours of being notified. Because the Shanghai Medical College of Fudan University is one of the most acclaimed medical schools in the country, many donors elect to leave their bodies to this institution above others.

Zhu Hongguang, a professor with the medical school and the director of the body reception station there, said that around 40 percent of the bodies donated in Shanghai were received by his medical school. Before the body donation registration had been launched by the Red Cross, the university had already had over 3,000 donors registered.

Bowing to bodies

At the medical school at Fudan, the students in anatomy classes have adopted the Japanese practice of referring to the bodies as "teachers" and bowing before them at the start of each class.

In these anatomy classes the bodies provide students with a perfect way of learning about physiology. Groups of eight students share a body, observing, dissecting and studying it closely. Other bodies are used for pathology training and research.

"Although there are enough body donations in Shanghai there is a great shortage in the rest of the country. Some of the medical schools in other provinces ask us to supply them with digital images for their students," Zhu said.

When the medical schools no longer have any use for the remains, they are often cremated and the ashes returned to the donor's family. Some families ask for hair clippings as a memento.

Otherwise at Fu Shou Yuan cemetery there is a memorial where all body donors' names are inscribed. Every March 1 there is a special memorial service there for the donors.