To receive the forms:

• Contact the Body Donation Program by telephone at 1-888-221-2993.
• Or by email at [email protected].
• Or request some forms from our website at www.anatomia.ca.

Once you fill out the forms, you can email your completed and signed paperwork to us at [email protected].  Please ensure that any scans or pictures of your paperwork is clear and includes the entire page.  You can also send them by mail at: 

University of Ottawa
Faculty of Medicine
451 Smyth Road (Room 2204)
Ottawa, ON  K1H 8M5.

If you are giving your body, please fill out the form “Part I” of the ‘Anatomy Act – Province of Ontario’ form.

If you are unable to fill out Part I prior to your death, your next of kin can fill out “Part II” of the ‘Anatomy Act – Province of Ontario’ form.

If you know your surgical history, it would be helpful for us to know what surgeries you had.  Please fill out the “Surgical History” form.

The “Acknowledgment of Instructions” form should be completed after death by your next of kin.

Note: If someone from your family refuses your donation after you pass, even if you registered and wanted to donate, we will not accept your body donation.  It is important that you discuss with your family about your desire for body donation.

So, regardless of what you have arranged, signed or instructed, your next of kin makes the final decision.

None of the documents connected with body donation are legally binding. If requested, we will remove your forms from our files.  All you need to do is contact us at 1-888-221-2993 or by email at [email protected] .

There is no maximum age limit, but you must have attained the age of 16 in order to donate your body.

There's usually a lapse of one to three years between death and the final disposition of the remains. In some cases, if the next of kin has given us their authorization on our “Acknowledgement of Instructions” form, tissues can be kept longer for continued medical education.

No. We do our own embalming. 

It is recommended that you notify and discuss this decision with:

• Your next of kin
• Executor of your estate
• Anyone else potentially involved in the donation process

It is important that we receive your donation within 72 hours.

No, we do not require notarized documents.

You may put this in your will but it is not necessary.  One’s will is typically read after the funeral when it would be too late to make donation arrangements. We require 72 hours to receive a body donation. Please ensure that your family and friends know what your wishes are prior to your death.

Most body donations are used for teaching purposes and will be the subject of student examination and dissection. Some donations will be used specifically for surgical skills and research training. These donations will help to advance surgical training techniques and enhance progress in areas of medical research and therefore making a very special and valuable contribution to the education of our health care professionals and the communities they serve.

We keep the body from 1 to 3 years. Afterwards, your cremated remains may be returned to your next of kin for a private burial or buried in the Pinecrest Cemetery in the University of Ottawa burial plot.

Due to the nature of the teaching and studies, it is important that the body be unaffected by organ removal. Therefore, the donor must choose between organ donation and body donation.  However, some families choose to do both and if declined as an organ donor, body donation may be considered as an alternative.

Please note that you can donate your eyes and still donated your body.

For information on organ donation, please contact the Trillium Gift of Life Network at 1-877-363-8456 or online at www.beadonor.ca.

Body donation is an anonymous gesture. Personal identification of the body is used by and accessible to only the Anatomy Laboratory Manager, Personnel and Administrator of the Body Donor Program. Researchers, professors, medical students and all other medical professionals working with the bodies do not have access to identification information. Studies with the donors take place in restricted-access facilities only.

Information on the specific procedures performed upon each body is not revealed before, during, or after the studies.

Our donations are used by the University of Ottawa medical students, professors, and researchers for the basic teaching of anatomy, or by medical specialists who may want to practice or investigate surgical techniques.

Unfortunately, no. Although we do have research projects throughout the year, it does not mean that it will coincide with a specific disease the donor has. The researchers often ask for specific age groups, female or male, no surgical history, etc. and we provide them with the donor that fits their criteria.

The University of Ottawa Body Donation Program does not perform and is not involved in any individual- or disease-specific research, as this is more appropriately performed in tissue culture or living patients.

It's important to note that the University of Ottawa is a teaching institution. We are not involved in determining cause of death or in investigating any issues related to the pathology associated with any of the individuals whose bodies are donated to the Body Donation Program.

We do not perform autopsies; therefore, the University of Ottawa Body Donation Program is not able to provide further information about the causes of death. If at the time of death, a family member or durable power of attorney/next of kin/donor agent has concerns that might warrant a thorough forensic examination, they should contact the coroner to make arrangements. If an autopsy is performed, the body cannot be donated. 

Upon your death, your next of kin must contact a funeral home and notify them that you have passed and that you have requested to donate your body.  The funeral home will contact us at 1-888-221-2993 and we will ask a series of questions to determine acceptance.  The funeral home will then notify the next of kin of our decision.

This needs to be done within 72 hours.

No. Although every potential donor is appreciated, your application to the donor program is not a guarantee that you will be accepted.  Some conditions will not allow for donation to occur. The University of Ottawa reserves the right to decline any donation if considered unsuitable. For this reason, it is recommended that alternate arrangements be made for final disposition in advance.

Here is a list of conditions that may prevent body donation:

• Infectious diseases
• Severe trauma to the body
• Autopsy or Coroner’s case
• Delay in notification of death
• Organ donations for transplantation after death (except for the eyes)
• Space limitation in our facilities
• Suicide (Medically Assistance In Dying is not a cause for refusal)
• Other conditions at the discretion of the Body Donation Program staff

Since the condition at the time of death is of utmost importance, we cannot accept or decline until the time of death. 

If the body is not accepted, it will be the responsibility of the family to choose an alternate plan.  We can suggest that the family contact another university or college that has a body donation program to see if they would accept. 

We only accept donors from the provinces of Ontario and Quebec.

If your death occurs outside these provinces, the USA or overseas, your next of kin may contact a medical school in the region where the death occurred to see if they qualify as a donor into their program.

Every effort is made to ensure that online data is encrypted and kept on a firewalled server with only password access by a handful of workers.  Paper files are kept locked and only kept for the duration of time necessary for vital statistics, burial and cremation permits, to keep track of burials, to notify the next of kin of all arrangements, changes, and the memorial service.  The University of Ottawa Body Donation Program takes the security of health information very seriously.

Unfortunately, viewing of the remains at the University of Ottawa is not permitted for health and safety issues and for the privacy of our donors.

We only allow visits of the anatomy laboratory to a selected few.  This is to ensure the anonymity of the donors and protect the integrity of our facility.  These exceptions are for groups like high school tours as part of an outreach program.  We have a strict code of conduct and a no cell phone policy that they need to follow.

We do not allow any visitors into our morgue area.  This space is restricted to our laboratory personnel only.

The University of Ottawa Body Donation Program does not send out copies the death certificate.  Please contact your funeral home for directions on how to get a copy.

If your body is accepted into our Body Donation Program, we will cover the costs of cremation and the interment of the ashes in the University of Ottawa plot.  

If your family chooses to pick up the ashes for a private burial, the University of Ottawa will cover the cost of the urn. If they are unable to pick them up, we will cover the shipping costs by Canada Post.

The funeral home will bill the estate for other related costs like the transfer of the body to the University of Ottawa, issue a burial permit, register the death to the city, and all other fees they may have.  We don’t know what these fees are.  We suggest that you contact a funeral home to get more details.

Although some institutions may provide compensations to the next-of-kin when a person gives his or her body to science; this is not the case for the University of Ottawa. The family of the deceased will not receive a cash amount.

Yes, financial contributions are accepted. Cheques can be made payable to the University of Ottawa – Anatomy Memorial Trust Fund, and can be mailed to the address below:

University of Ottawa

Body Donation Program
Faculty of Medicine
451 Smyth Road, Room 2204
Ottawa, ON
K1H 8M5

An income tax receipt will be sent to you.  
 

Your contributions can be made “In Memory Of” your loved one.  Please add the name of your loved one on the note part of the cheque.

These contributions help in so many ways.  For example, we buy equipment for the anatomy lab, plastic models for our high school outreach programs, ultrasound machines for teaching, and so much more.

Each year the University of Ottawa staff, along with the help of volunteer medical students, organize a beautiful and dignified memorial service for donors who were cremated in the previous year. The service is an opportunity for students, staff, professors, and medical professionals to express their appreciation of the special privilege granted to them. They fully appreciate that generous donors (and their families) allow future practitioners to develop a unique understanding of the human body and its form and function. They understand that without donors, their medical education would be incomplete.

The families are welcome to bring a favourite picture of their loved one to be displayed under a tree of light for all guests to view. The ceremony time, date, and location are sent out to the next of kin two months prior to the service if your family has indicated it in the acknowledgment of instructions.

There is a memorial stone at the Pinecrest Cemetery in Ottawa that reads as follow:

In memory of those who have generously given their body for the advancement of science and medical education.

A la mémoire de ceux qui ont généreusement donné leur corps pour les progrès de la science et de l’enseignement de la médecine.

Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa

Faculté de Médecine, Université d'Ottawa

You can visit our memorial service page for more information and pictures.The individual names are recorded in our Memorial Book which is available for viewing and is displayed at our Annual Memorial Service.

All of our donors are cremated after we are finished with anatomical studies.   

The bodies are cremated separately and the cremated remains from each body are placed in separate urns.

Unfortunately, once the urns are placed in the ground, they cannot be exhumed.  The University of Ottawa owns multiple burial chambers under the ground and each chamber has multiple liners in them.  We have thousands of urns buried and out of respect for all the other urns, we cannot exhume an urn.

Since the body should be in our facilities within 72 hours after death, a traditional funeral or viewing services are not possible.  However, some funeral home will allow the immediate family to view the body before it is transferred to us.

Unfortunately, this is not possible. 

Plastination is a method of preservation of anatomical material in order to keep it for a period of prolonged time.  This form of preservation will allow the instruction of many more students for each donation, making each donation that much more precious.  We will not keep anatomical material for a longer period of time unless we have authorization from the family on the acknowledgment of instructions form.

No. A licensed funeral director or cremation services must arrange for delivery of the donor's body to ensure protection of public health and compliance with all related laws and policies.

If the next of kin’s wish was to receive the ashes, we will try our best to contact them.  This includes sending registered letters, calling, emailing, trying to locate them on social media, etc.  If we are unable to locate the family within a reasonable amount of time following the cremation, the file will automatically be marked for burial at the Pinecrest Cemetery.  Once the urn is placed in the ground, it cannot be retrieved.  It is very important to keep your information up to date.