Benefits of Donating to Mayo Clinic

Many institutions and companies accept body donations. Body donation to Mayo Clinic benefits medical education, research and transplantation. Unique ways that Mayo may benefit, compared to some other donor programs, include:

• Mayo Clinic is an accredited, degree-granting educational institution that uses these gracious donations to advance education. Mayo Clinic, as a world leader in medicine, hosts continuing medical education (CME) training programs that are attended by physicians from throughout the world.
• Mayo Clinic has a long history of research endeavors — many dependent on body donation — that lead to internationally-recognized medical innovations.
• Mayo Clinic is a not-for-profit organization that uses institutional oversight committees to ensure that the educational intent of each donation is honored and respected.
• Mayo Clinic utilizes each body donation within a nine to 15-month period. After completion of study, Mayo Clinic offers resomation (a chemical cremation process) and the ashes can be returned to the donor family or interred in Mayo Clinic's burial vault at Oakwood Cemetery in Rochester, Minn. at the request of the donor's family. The donor's family can request that the body be returned for traditional cremation or burial, at their expense.
• Body donation supports many educational endeavors including teaching students, medical residents, physicians and other medical trainees.

Mayo Clinic also supports transplantable donation by working with organ and tissue procurement organizations. Through these collaborations, some donations can provide both the gift of life through organ donation and education through anatomical study.