Donate body to science?

Following the newspaper article about Shin, I learnt that she had donated her body to science.

A friend commented that it was a good idea that he would consider. Donate the body to science and save the hassle of a funeral, just a memorial would do. I asked my children for their opinions, and my son said it was okay with him, afterall it is my choice.

My 2 girls went, "eww.... mummy........."

I understand how they felt because I cannot get used to the idea myself.

All along, I had found it very hard to come to terms with mutilated bodies. When I passed a serious accident scene, everybody would be cranning their necks to see what happened, but I would be looking in the opposite direction, afraid that I would be seeing a broken or crushed body.

It was the same with amputation of limbs. I cannot help feeling very sorry for the people who had lost limbs or had big cuts or ugly wounds. This feeling was not for human beings alone, I had felt the same about animals as well.

When my dad had wounds on his legs before they were amputated, I could not bring myself to look at his wounds. And even after the amputations, I dared not look at his legs.

Over time and especially after I had my 3 children and had tended to their cuts and wounds and scars I have improved slightly but still not good enough.

Some years back, there was a body parts exhibition in Singapore. Though curious, I could not bring myself to the exhibition. If it had been made of synthetic materials, I would definitely have gone, but those were parts cut and sliced from a human being.

Recently, a friend whose husband is a gynaecologist, said when her husband was undergoing training, they had to sleep with half a human body each under the bed, and each day they would cut a part of it to study. With my active imagination, I could actually visualise them slicing the body. Good thing, I never had the ambition to be a doctor.

Likewise, my elder daughter liked biology and she had done well in the subject. While selecting her subjects for junior college, she found out that biology students had to bring a rabbit home, and then bring it back to school a few days later to dissect it. Her love for rabbits and the thought of dissecting animals made her sacrifice biology and she is now struggling with chemistry instead.

I would also like to know what sort of improvements or recommendations the scientists have after conducting tests on a donated body. If tests revealed mistakes had been made during diagnosis or treatment, would they owned up and make adjustments or would they just cover everything up? Would justice be done to her donated body? I just hope that Shin's intentions would not have gone to waste.

I admire her guts, but the idea really takes some getting used to. I am not ready for it yet.