The university is also combing through a further 250 expressions of interest to see if they will be suitable for the scheme.<\/p>\n
The bodies of those who sign up are used by undergraduate medical students from the university in the event of their death, to allow them to study anatomy through dissection of a real human body.<\/p>\n
One woman in her 90s from Co Down told The Irish News of her delight that the programme has reopened, having first signed up more than three decades ago.<\/p>\n Virginia Hardy (95) from Strangford says her reasons for first signing up were both altruistic and practical.<\/p>\n \u201cI first signed up at least 30 years ago now,\u201d Ms Hardy says.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the time, I remember I told my GP about it and I vividly remember his response and how grateful he was after learning I had signed up.<\/p>\n \u201cHe thanked me and told me about how much of a difference it makes to young doctors to be able to learn with a real body.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s the point of just being in a coffin? Young would-be doctors will learn more and you can still be useful after you die.<\/p>\n \u201cI like to be kind and I suppose a bit generous, so I thought it would be nice to be useful for future generations to come.\u201d<\/p>\n Ms Hardy added she was delighted to hear that the scheme had reopened earlier this month.<\/p>\n \u201cI was disappointed when it closed,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cAs well as helping student doctors, there was also a practicality for me because I don\u2019t have my own family here to look after me when I die.<\/p>\n \u201cMy grandniece will be taking care of my affairs and it was actually a relief to my wider family to hear of my plans.\u201d<\/p>\n Professor Alan Smyth is a paediatrician and dean of the university\u2019s School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Science, and leads the body donation scheme.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the ways we teach anatomy is through dissection and to enable dissection we are dependent on donors who in life make a decision that when they die they want their body to be used to help teach the next generation of health workers,\u201d Professor Smyth says.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re hugely grateful to our community of donors who have made that decision. Our students are hugely grateful as well.<\/p>\n \u201cIt does in a sense create a bit of a bond between us and the community that we serve.<\/p>\n \u201cThe scheme was paused for several years, initially during Covid and then subsequently. We\u2019ve done a lot of work to employ new members of staff to make sure we have an adequate group of technicians who can run the programme.\u201d<\/p>\n While the programme was paused, Professor Smyth says students used new technology in attempt to replicate the human body, but that there is \u201cno substitute\u201d for the real thing.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can see those structures and how that blood vessel connects to that organ. <\/p>\n \u201cStudents choose Queen\u2019s in some cases because we do dissection, particularly international students.<\/p>\n \u201cCommonly when students come to us for interview they will give dissection as one of the reasons why they want to come here.\u201d<\/p>\n On why people typically come forward to offer their body up to the programme, the senior doctor says it comes down to wanting to provide assistance after they are gone.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it probably is altruism – they think their body is no use to them when they\u2019re gone but it could be of use to someone else.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s driven by a passion and concern to help others, and we are pleased that we are able to fulfil that really important wish that they have.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re grateful to the patients that help us in life, patients every day are seeing medical students and that is a bond that links us to our community.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have already accepted our first donor and that\u2019s been fantastic. We have students arriving in the next week so it\u2019s fantastic for them to know that the opportunities will be even richer than before.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Most people will be aware that you can opt to have your organs donated following your death, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":438005,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[23523,1144,29728,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-438004","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-health-and-social-care","9":"tag-northern-ireland","10":"tag-queen-s-university","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115235417600190283","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=438004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/438005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Student](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1758352828_889_AWM3ZPVV4JLJFH4DKBT72P6XMM.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"Man](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/L2LULJM6NVGZRFCSMGA54ZUSTU.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Prof](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/NWJTINBNMFDZTGHW5UIA2VJ3FQ.JPG\")
Prof Alan Smyth at Queen’s.
\nPICTURE: COLM LENAGHAN <\/p>\n