"Mortui vivos docent" or who gives his body to science? The analysis of the personal questionnaires of Polish donors in the Conscious Body Donation Program.

Abstract

The Conscious Body Donation Program conducted since 2003 by the Department of Human Anatomy, Medical University of Silesia in Katowice was the first innovative project aimed at obtaining informed donors' bodies for the purpose of teaching anatomy in Poland. The aim of this prospective study was to determine the declared donors' characteristics and to establish the possible motivation for body donation. A total of 244 application files were reviewed and the following information was analyzed: donor's age, age at which the decision to donate the body was made, donor's place of residence and declared nationality, family background, education and profession, family structure and religion. Our results showed that mainly elderly people decided to donate their bodies (68.5 ± 11.84 years), living mostly in large and medium-sized cities. Men--donors often lived in small towns. Most of the donors were of blue-collar parentage, completed secondary education and at the time of taking decision to donate where married and retired. Widows were more likely to make the decision to donate than widowers. Most of our donors were Catholic. Our analysis of the profile of Polish donors may be useful to understand better for which groups of people death is not to be perceived as the end, and may become a value, which can be beneficial to living people.