Question: I am a widower, 76, with no children and few relatives. My wife died six years ago and, according to her wishes, her body was cremated and her ashes were buried in our backyard. My health is not terrible, but not the best either. I had planned to also be cremated, but I have no close relative who will dispose of my ashes, etc.

I began looking into donating my body to our local medical school, but the forms they sent me were one-sided and give the school so many outs to not take my body that I worry what will happen if my remains are not accepted and I have no alternate plans. I know this sounds nutty, but I have been losing sleep thinking about what will happen to my remains when I die. I am leaving everything my wife and I acquired to our favorite charities. Can you give me some ideas, and do I need a lawyer to assist me in this endeavor?

Answer: Unlike an organ donation where specific tissue is removed from the body of a person who died recently or from a living donor for the purpose of transplantation into other persons, the anatomical gift you are speaking of involves leaving your body to be dissected by medical students or for other educational or research purposes.

In 1968, the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act was enacted in order to create a standardized approach to comprehensive and standardized laws regarding organ and tissue donations. Today, all 50 states and the District of Columbia follow this act in one form or another, some states with slight variations.

Unlike organ donations that can be opted for on your driver’s license, cadaver donations require more documentation. That’s why, generally speaking, you should rely on the documents provided by the medical school of your choice. Without these written documents in place, there will be problems because you will not have an advocate there after you die to enforce your wishes.

Although some health conditions may render a cadaver unsuitable for donation (like, for example, infectious diseases, severe obesity, autopsy, or decomposition), the bodies of those with other medical conditions (such as dementia, Parkinson’s, etc.) may be very valuable for research into those conditions.

While all medical schools in the United States depend on donors to teach anatomy, there are conditions for accepting cadavers. For example, some medical schools will pay for or contribute to the expense of the funeral home delivering the body to the school. Generally, the remains will be either cremated or buried after the course is completed, but some schools require the donor to make an up-front payment to cover the cost of final disposal. And all of the forms we have reviewed contain the clear warning to the donor that because acceptance of the body is not guaranteed, alternate disposal arrangements should be made.

Taking the NextStep: If you choose to make an anatomical gift of your body to a medical school for research or education, make sure to get your papers together as early as possible. We suggest that if you have the time and the distance is not too great, you should make an appointment with the proper persons at the medical school and discuss your concerns. And since there is no guarantee that your body will ultimately be accepted, we recommend that you create a contingency plan whereby your personal representative ensures that your remains are either cremated or buried.