Whole Body Donation in Alabama: Honoring Life
In Alabama, whole body donation is a generous choice, and it comes with no-cost cremation for the family left behind. Through MERI’s Genesis Whole Body Donation Program, families in Birmingham, Montgomery, Huntsville, Mobile, Tuscaloosa and everywhere between can donate at no cost. Alabama is one of the 19 states Genesis serves. Transportation to Memphis, the death certificate and cremation are all taken care of, so your family is spared the expense, and your gift helps prepare the next generation of physicians.
Alabama Whole Body Donation
Legacy
A single gift can reach far beyond one lifetime. Through the Genesis Whole Body Donation Program, run by the nonprofit MERI, your gift helps train physicians, surgeons and nurses in the skills they carry into every exam room afterward. Somewhere down the road, a patient may be in better hands because of your loved one.
Financial
Nothing falls to your family financially, which brings real comfort when the days are hard. Genesis pays for transportation, the death certificate and cremation.
Environmental Responsibility
Whole body donation ends in cremation instead of burial, so there is no embalming and no plot to buy. For families who were already leaning toward cremation, it is a softer, lighter-footprint way to let the gift mean something.
Peace of Mind
You can rest assured in how carefully your loved one is treated. MERI is accredited by the American Association of Tissue Banks and licensed by the New York State Department of Health. It regards every donor with respect and gratitude at every step.
How to Donate Your Body to Science in Alabama
You are welcome to pre-register for yourself at any time, or a legal authorizing party can begin things when a loved one passes. Here is how it goes, beginning to end.
Complete the Genesis donor registration forms and sign them. You may register for yourself, or as a legal authorizing party for a member of your family.
At the time of passing, one call to Genesis is all it takes. A real person answers and talks your family through each step.
Genesis sets up the transportation from Alabama to MERI in Memphis at no charge, and takes care of the death certificate.
For about 6 to 12 months, your loved one is cared for at MERI, and the gift supports hands-on medical education.
When that time is complete, cremated remains are returned to the family, or placed in a mausoleum near Memphis, as the family prefers.
How Alabama Donors Support Medical Education
MERI is a nonprofit bioskills facility set in the middle of the Memphis Medical District, with six bioskills labs. It does not teach the courses itself. Instead, it supplies the facility, the donated tissue and the equipment that medical device companies, surgical societies and health systems use to run their own hands-on training. Physicians, surgeons, nurses and paramedics come from all over the country to learn new procedures on donated tissue rather than on a living patient. That is the quiet good your loved one’s gift makes possible.
Who Qualifies for Body Donation in Alabama
Donation is open to most people, with no strict upper age limit. Acceptance is settled at the time of passing and rests on medical suitability, so pre-registering raises the odds even though it cannot promise a yes.
A donor should be free of infectious diseases that might endanger a learner, and physically suitable for a safe, high-quality learning experience.
Genesis serves families throughout Alabama and 18 additional states. MERI is accredited by the American Association of Tissue Banks and licensed by the New York State Department of Health. Alabama donations follow the Alabama Revised Uniform Anatomical Gift Act, set out in Title 22 of the Code of Alabama. Under it, any adult of sound mind may make the gift for medical education and research.
How to Register for Whole Body Donation in Alabama
You may pre-sign into the body donation program by filling out the donor forms now, or at the time of death, by a legal authorizing party that uses the Third Party Authorization form in the donor packet linked above.
Download the Genesis Donor Forms. (Adobe Acrobat Reader is required to open the donor forms. Download the donor forms here.)
Complete the forms and then print, OR print first and complete nearly by hand
The completed forms must be hand-signed by the donor and two (2) witnesses before submission.
Send your completed and signed donor forms to the Genesis program address. Forms can also be mailed to you.
Genesis Whole Body Donation Program
Medical Education & Research Institute
44 South Cleveland
Memphis, TN 38104
Donor paperwork can also be sent through fax – (901) 722-9392
Body Donation vs Cremation Costs in Alabama
For many Alabama families, the no-cost cremation is the heart of this choice. Through Genesis, cremation costs nothing, and neither does transportation to Memphis or the death certificate.
Genesis currently serves families in Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia.
Learn More About Whole Body Donation in Alabama
The Genesis Donation Process, Step by Step
Whether you pre-register or a legal authorizing party begins at the time of passing, the process is the same from there.
Frequently Asked Questions About
Alabama Whole Body Donation
Yes. Genesis covers transportation, the death certificate and cremation, and there is nothing for your family to pay at any stage.
Once your family calls, Genesis arranges and pays for transportation from the place of passing to MERI. Your family neither coordinates nor covers it.
A donor is generally with MERI for about 6 to 12 months. After that, cremated remains are returned to the family or interred in a mausoleum near Memphis, as you wish.
Since acceptance depends on medical suitability at the time of passing, it cannot be guaranteed in advance. Keeping a backup plan for cremation or burial is a sensible precaution.
Yes, of course. Whole body donation does not prevent a memorial. Because the donor is not embalmed, there is no traditional viewing, so families usually come together to remember their loved one whenever the time feels right.
