title: Over my dead body: body donation and the rise in donor registrations in The Netherlands.
abstract: In The Netherlands, the number of body donor registrations has been increasing for several years. Body donors are people who register at an anatomical institute to donate their entire body, after death, for scientific education and research. Although only 0.1% of the Dutch population is registered as a body donor, this is sufficient to realize the anatomical demand of about 650 bodies annually. Due to the recent rise of registrations many anatomical institutes have (temporarily) stopped registering new donors to prevent a surplus of bodies. Based on a large body donor survey (n=759) and in-depth anthropological interviews with 20 body donors, we try to give an explanation for the rising registration numbers. We argue that the choice for body donation in contemporary, individualized Dutch society is an autonomous way to give meaning and sense to life and death outside the framework of institutionalized religion.
authors.affiliation: Center for Thanatology, Faculty of Philosophy, Theology, and Religious Studies, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands. s.bolt@rs.ru.nl
authors.forename: Sophie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bolt
authors.forename: Rob
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Eisinga
authors.forename: Marga
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Altena
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Venbrux
authors.forename: Peter O
authors.initials: PO
authors.lastname: Gerrits
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001293:Attitude to Death; D002102:Cadaver; D005260:Female; D037921:Gift Giving; D018594:Human Body; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D009426:Netherlands; D011639:Public Opinion; D012042:Registries / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014019:Tissue Donors / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*