Yes, why distress him with something he has no real interest in, or gets upset talking about it.

Tell the care home, you will discuss it when the time comes...(when he dies).

Then if your mum is still alive she can make arrangements to suit her, or if she cant do it , other family members can.

lets face it when we die, we don't know what goes on, so why upset him, for nothing.

If the care home want boxes ticked, tell them, NO, they will have to wait , it wont add any more work for them, knowing now or on his death.

I really think this is something that needs to come from the person involved. If my relatives started asking me about `arrangements` I`d get extremely worried. What`s the rush?

We do not have this problem here. Someone dies and if there is time they are laid to rest that day. If not then the following day. It is paid for by the National Insurance Institute although the family have to pay for a private ambulance to bring him/her home to then be carried by male relatives to our main Synagogue for prayers, and thanks for his/her life, and then to our Burial Ground.

No music, no flowers. And no caskets,

When I die I will be laid to rest in the same Burial Ground. Just outside this Moshav. Whether a memorial stone will ever placed on my grave I have no idea. But I know I will be remembered by everyone on the Moshav as once having lived here.

I know that cadavers can be refused for a number of reasons, if organs (other than corneas) have been removed, sometimes due to cause of death, so I am wondering what happens if a body donated to science is refused? Does the family then have to make a decision what to do? Or is it disposed of by the establishment it was donated to?

I don't care at all what happens to my dead body when I'm gone (and would like to think it had helped further medical research) but I've read about donated bodies being used for testing weapons and I am sure there are many who wouldn't like to have to imagine a loved one's body (or bits of it) being blasted to smithereens.

I believe there are rules to be adhered to regarding the treatment of the corpses and also that there is a choice of whether it can be kept for years etc.

Just mainly wondering what happens if the corpse is refused as unsuitable for research?

From the direct.gov website a rough idea here:

Whole body donation and medical teaching

Contact the Human Tissue Authority about whole body donation (in England and Wales):

Human Tissue Authority
Finlaison House
15-17 Furnival Street
London
EC4A 1AB

All the details are on the site I posted earlier.

Have a look here.

http://www.hta.gov.uk/bodyorganandti...teyourbody.cfm

Both my mother and myself have pledged to do this, it is in our wills and the relevant bods (sorry) know.

Yes you got me thinking about this again Smokeybear and I have just been having a little 'look up' on it. Seems I am out of date on my info - there has been a new law passed recently "(the Human Tissue Act 2004) came into force on 1 September 2006". This has detrimentally affected the number of bodies available apparently.

But still I am reading that bodies can be refused and families will then need to make arrangements. Now, to me, that would seem to be more distressing than if they had to make them in the first place - going through the rigmarole of refusal (and maybe waiting to see if another est. will take it) and then still having to arrange a funeral, so I'd say it was sensible to have arrangements in place in case your body was refused for donation.

And there is a quite long list of reasons given for circumstances in which a body would not be considered suitable (including being overweight!)

When we looked into this we were made completely aware of the possibility of refusal so contingency plans are in place.

This is not something you do on a whim.

I had a legal Lasting Power of Attorney drawn up when I had a new Will drawn up.

Both state what I want and cannot be contested.