UI holds memorial service for donated cadavers

The University of Iowa Medical Center held a memorial service Friday. Darrel Wilkins, director of the University’s “Deeded Body Program,” says the memorial service is to honor all body donors whose cadavers were used in teaching and research. Some of the bodies have already been sent back to families, but this event the final closure for all the families. Wilkins says even when someone donates their body to the University med school, it doesn’t prevent their family from holding any service it chooses. A family can hold a funeral before the body’s taken to the school, and afterward, when the university’s done with it, the school will cremate it and give the ashes to the family, or keep the remains for burial in the annual memorial service. For more information on the University’s Deeded Body Program, see www.anatomy.uiowa.edu