Body Donation In The Body Farm

THE BODY FARM In modern day American society, when you think of “disposing of the dead” you will most likely think of funerals or cremations. There is another option that is slowly starting to make its way into the minds of the American public. That option is donating your body, or the body of your loved ones, to science. The majority of the American public will think about body donation in reference to medical schools, but a fairly new option is donation to a “body farm.”

The sensationalized term “body farm” is in reference to a decomposition facility. These facilities are housed at Universities across the United States, with the majority being in the south. Dr. William Bass at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, established the first body farm in 1981. The Anthropology Research Facility (ARF) was created for two reasons: evidence

The human body, and the organs being prepped for donation are often objectified, making them a “contested terrain” of sorts. This objectification silences the donor and the donors family, making the donor recipient, and the organ transplant surgeons the stars of the show (Sharp, 2001). In the United States, the human body, and organs being donated are often viewed as goods, or objects, being bought and sold for medical purposes. Almost all parts of the human body can be viewed in this manner. Genetic materials associated with reproduction such as placenta, sperm, and ova can be sold as well (Sharp, 2001). Organ transplant lists are very extensive, with a long list of requirements that must be met by the donor recipient before they can even be put on this list. Because some people can be on this list for many years, there is a strong desire, or desperation, for a life saving organ, that individuals will go through the black market to get