Jackie Dent’s grandparents donated their bodies to science, a fact that lingered in her family for decades without much discussion. Her grandmother Ruby’s body went to the University of Queensland in 1969, and her grandfather Julie’s in 1981. The donation was seen as a slightly intriguing, quietly spectacular postscript to their ordinary lives.
But a chance conversation at a Christmas party in Sydney changed everything. A neighbour mentioned that some medical students were no longer using full bodies for dissection and that human arms and body parts were being shipped in from the US. This prompted Dent to investigate what had actually happened to her grandparents.
Dent began tracking down old surgeons, doctors, and technicians who worked in dissecting rooms during the period her grandparents were there. She learned about embalming fluid recipes, mould on bodies, and the use of bandsaws. Human heads are frozen first to get a clean line through the middle of the nose. Some students find hands freakier to dissect than faces.
Dent also discovered a growing 'humane' anatomy movement where students meet families of donors or hold ceremonies for the dead after dissection. She learned that body donors donate for various reasons, from being helpful to avoiding a funeral because they disliked a relative.
