For most of us, we know exactly what will happen to our bodies when we die – but what about those who donate their bodies to medical science?

Nina Shelton’s dad passed away in 2023 and now two years later, the family are preparing to have his body returned to them after he made the decision to donate his body to science.

Ms Shelton told Moncrieff that she believes her dad’s “frugal” philosophy factored into his decision to donate his body after his death.

“I think he was a bit like, ‘It’s a bit wasteful to just be burned or just to be buried, somebody can get a last bit of use out of you'," she said.

“I think that was very much his philosophy behind it, and we just agreed with him.

"It seemed like a very nice and noble thing to do actually.”

A mourner holds a rose next to a coffin, Alamy

Ms Shelton said that while there was initially a bit of panic about how the arrangements were supposed to work after her dad died, her family felt “quite minded” by the Royal College of Surgeons once the wheels got turning.

“The hospital, when he passed away, said, ‘We’ll call the undertakers,’ and we had to say, ‘Oh, no, hold on now actually, this is what he wanted to do’,” she said.

“They’d never heard of it before, the nurse looked like we were talking a different language, had no idea.

"It was kind of like mass panic, like, ‘What are we going to do?’"

Burial arrangements

Now that it has been two years since her father’s passing, Ms Shelton said the Royal College of Surgeons is returning his remains to her family.

“You get a really lovely letter in the post that says, ‘We’ve looked after him, we have minded him, he has helped countless doctors and surgeons of the future and without people like your father, the surgeons couldn’t train,” she said.

According to Ms Shelton, the college will also organise the burial ceremony as per her family's wishes.

Main image: A patient sits on a hospital bed, Alamy