Benefits of body donation

Body donation to Mayo Clinic provides many benefits to medical education, clinical practice and research:

  • Mayo Clinic is an accredited, degree-granting educational institution that uses these altruistic donations to advance medical education. Mayo Clinic hosts continuing education training programs that are attended by doctors and scientists from throughout the world.
  • Mayo Clinic has a long history of research endeavors — many dependent on body donation — that lead to medical innovations.
  • Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization that uses institutional oversight committees to ensure that the educational intent of each donation is honored and respected.
  • Each whole-body donation is studied for six to 15 months, after which Mayo Clinic offers biocremation, a noncombustible cremation process. The remains may be returned to the donor family or interred in the Mayo vault at Oakwood Cemetery in Rochester, Minnesota. Families can request that the body be returned for traditional cremation or burial, at their expense.
  • Whole-body donation supports many educational opportunities, including teaching students, medical residents, physicians and other medical trainees.