Whole Body Donation Partnership Program

All local funeral homes offer assistance to families wishing to use the Body Donation Program at Oregon Health & Sciences University. However, to assist the Body Donation Program as well as the families of the Portland/Salem metropolitan areas, Crown Memorial Centers have developed a professional and yet economical program which simplifies the donation process. For one simple, straight forward charge, Crown will provide all the necessary services to carry out a whole body donation.

What Crown will do for the Donor Family

• Transportation from the place of death to the Crown holding facility in Tualatin
• Securing and recording all vital records for the deceased
• Coordination with the Body Donation Program Director
• Housing and refrigeration of the deceased until the donation is finalized
• Transportation to the Body Donation Program facility at OHSU
• An online obituary at www.ANewTradition.com
• Assistance and support to the deceased’s family, at any of our locations, for newspaper obituaries, memorial service instruction, guidance for final placement of ashes (once returned from OHSU) and an array of other support services and ideas

One simple, straight forward charge for all the above……………………………$445
(Death certificates and the Oregon state filing fee not included)

IMPORTANT MESSAGE

This is very important information regarding Whole Body Donation

Whole body donation can be an option that suits some families. Donating a body to a university can benefit society by helping advance medical research and education. However, be very cautious in deciding where to donate the body; find out where the body goes and with whom you are actually dealing.

Oregon Health & Sciences University’s “Body Donation Program” is the only program in our area that uses the whole body for educational purposes and then cremates the entire body following that study, returning all the ashes to the family. They can be reached online at: http://www.ohsu.edu/bodydonation. Others, who claim to be “whole body donation programs”, are actually “for profit” businesses that dismember, or dissect, the body and actually sell body parts to purchasers throughout the country. They call this process “Tissue Procurement.” The sold body parts are not reunited with the rest of the body and are not returned. The unused body parts (usually only 15-25% of the body) are cremated (generally by a third party) and returned to the family. Some of these businesses even go so far as to advertise “Free Cremation” in order to get families to donate the body to their business.

Again, educate yourself and do not agree to anything that does not meet your family’s needs or desires. Please note that not all human bodies are eligible for whole body donation. Eligibility is always addressed on a case by case basis and your family should have an alternate plan, should the donation not be accepted.

By choosing Crown Memorial Centers as a whole body donation facilitator to the OHSU Body Donation Program, your body donation “alternate plan” is convenient and simple. Crown Memorial Centers, as a commitment to the OHSU Body Donation Program have agreed to discount the cremation cost should the donation be declined for any reason. Simply talk to the OHSU program director and a cremation credit will be requested, lowering your total cost of cremation, to Crown’s Body Donation Program package price. We do this as part of our commitment to the OHSU Body Donation Program and the advancement of medical research including education and training for the next generation of medical professionals.

Thank you for joining us in this effort!