ABSTRACT
In 1992 the University of Queensland inaugurated an annual ceremony to say thank you publicly to those people who had chosen to donate their bodies after death for dissection and study by students learning about human anatomy. The Thanksgiving Service is conducted to give the families of those people an opportunity for acknowledgement of their loved ones’ generosity and gives the students an opportunity to meet and thank the families face-to-face. As awareness of the ceremony has increased, the service has also now come to play a valuable secondary role in introducing people in the wider community to the idea that donating their body is something that they might themselves consider. I am the programme coordinator of that ceremony and it is also my role to mediate the donation, reception and ultimate burial or cremation of the donor’s body, through working with the donor and/or their families.
