In the United States, approximately 20,000 people or their families donate their bodies for scientific research and education each year. Many bodies go to medical schools so aspiring doctors can learn about anatomy and practice surgical procedures while dissecting. But for about 30 years, so-called body farms, such as the Forensic Osteology Research Station (FOREST) of Western Carolina University, which was founded in 2003, have also been accepting body donations.
Skeleton and soft parts as illustrative material
How the bodies often change over the years and reveal the history of the people to whom they once belonged serves as valuable illustrative material for the students. This includes not only the decomposition of the soft tissues. Changes in the skeleton that become apparent after the bones have been uncovered are also instructive for students of forensic anthropology. Because many chronic diseases such as tuberculosis even leave their mark on the bones.
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Forensic anthropologists are also learning to use bones to estimate the age of younger deceased people. Using older bodies, they learn how typical signs of aging such as bone loss are written into the body. One of the most difficult tasks faced by forensic scientists is determining how long someone has been dead. Contrary to what crime fiction would have us believe, a serious forensic anthropologist will rarely be able to say that a person has been dead for exactly three weeks or so. More likely, and far less satisfying to investigators, is the answer that the time span is anywhere from a week to two months.
(vsz)
