When no one claims a body

theengel said:

What about the organs. If he it says so on his license, I guess they take his organs?

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If he has a license to identify him, he wouldn't be a John Doe.

What if it's not a John Doe, but there's no relative to claim him?

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As far as I know, the government has the Public Trustee here in Aust. that takes care of that. I'm not sure about elsewhere, but it may be similar.

That's the situation down in New Orleans at the moment. They have about 30 bodies they haven't been able to identify and a total of about 100 that aren't being claimed. Eventually, they'll bury them.

My guess would be that they probably don't harvest anything because by the time a decision is made, the organs would have been dead for too long. I can't imagine this is a fast process. They have to be checked against missing persons, wait a suitable time for someone to notice Uncle Buddy is missing, and so on.

Jim Clark-Dawe

Here in Canada, I know that the state buries those bodies that cannot be identified. They do have to wait a while to make sure that no one comes forward. When I was in a local funeral parlor arranging services for a family member, I noticed that in one section of the office there were plain wooden boxes. The director explained that they were for those who are buried at the cost of the state, in many cases. Apparently, the home picks up the body and buries it. I imagine they send the bill to the government. I’m not sure if this is relevant for your research, but I get the impression that the service provided would be very minimal and sad.

Here, the State pays for a decent funeral with a group of about 6 students always on standby, a minister praying over graveside. A paupers funeral, its called, still respectable.

There's a movie about this very subject. A documentery where they follow the bodies of jane/john does. The state buries them in pauper's graves. If anyone knows what film I'm talking about chime in.

I think they were also trying to come up with a shrink wrap plan to lower the cost to the state.

In this area, those unclaimed are creamated and buried at State's expense. NO harvesting unless the person specifically had provided for it.

OH maybe this was answered and I just lack the reading comprehension this morning.

What if it's not a John Doe and it's on their Driver's License that they are an organ donor. Would they go ahead and harvest the organs even though no one's claimed the body?

Regarding organ donations-- one thing you need to know is that most of the major organs (heart, kidney, liver) have to be harvested while the person's body is still technically "alive." In other words, they have to be pronounced brain dead while in a hospital setting and be on a ventilator etc. Heart valves, corneas, and long bones have to be harvested within 24 hours of when the person was last known to be alive. (And this is why it is so important to be an organ donor. The circumstances that make it possible to donate major organs are so rare that actual useful donations become even rarer.)

Regarding pauper burials: In Louisiana, it is generally up to each Coroner's office to decide when/if a body receives a pauper burial. In our parish there is one local funeral home that provides a graveyard for pauper burials. Unclaimed bodies are never cremated. The office here has held bodies for over four months waiting to hear from family regarding funeral arrangements (and it's even more complicated when it's someone from outside the country.) If a body is turned over for pauper burial, the grave is recorded with GPS coordinates, but there is no headstone and the location is not released to the family. This is to avoid having cheapo families allowing the state to pay for the funeral. Of course families can still get the location through Vital Statistics, but most people don't realize that.

Also, something to think about in reference to bodies being held until families can be found: bodies in a morgue cooler are still decomposing, just not as quickly as out in the open. Morgue coolers are NOT freezers. Even after just a few days in a cooler, a fresh body will have marbling and the beginnings of decomp. After four months in a cooler, that body is liquid mush.

that's something I didn't know about morgue coolers. I thought they were freezers.

Yeah I didn't know that either. That's a bit of knowledge I hope to never have to use.

Someone has to sign the legal document allowing the organs to be removed (and you can't do that if you are dead). You can provide for it while you are alive, through a Living Will, or by signing paperwork because you KNOW you are going to die.

The little box on the driver's license is not considered legal permission to take organs, it's more for the family or whoever to know what you'd want so they'll sign.

And the person who has to sign to take organs must be next of kin (husband, etc.) OR the person named as Durable Medical Power of Attorney. The POA gets preference.

Of course, if someone is taking organs without quite getting proper permission, than that's quite a dramatic situation!

Unclaimed bodies are buried, eventually, by the state.

kimmi said:

Here, the State pays for a decent funeral with a group of about 6 students always on standby, a minister praying over graveside. A paupers funeral, its called, still respectable.

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What are the 6 students for? Carrying the box of rotting meat?

I assume they're there to give the deceased a little dignity in death, RumpleTumbler.

Cath said:

I assume they're there to give the deceased a little dignity in death, RumpleTumbler.

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You mean like hired mourners? That's sad.

If I died right this minute I'd only have maybe my daughter and whoever gave her a ride to the funeral unless someone was paid to come. I'd rather no one be there than people be paid to come. Who was that King that made it a capital offense to not mourn his death for like a week in the bible? What a psycho.

theengel said:

At the hospital where my wife worked, they would get the decision maker in a locked room and get down and dirty about the selfishness of keeping a body alive when the organs could really be used by someone else.

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I hope they brought their checkbook.

Can I hijack this thread to ask a question(s) of my own? Hopefully I'm not intruding on theengel.

Does anyone have a clue on the steps necessary to bury someone without going through a coroner first? I have a character who has legitimate reasons to bury someone who was murdered. He didn't do the murdering, but he can't let it go through a police investigation, and wants to give the person a proper burial. What kind of documents do funeral homes need for this to be possible, assuming he already has a funeral plot?

Or, the other direction... If he lets the body be found, goes through the police investigation (to no results), and then later claims the John Doe, what documents would the hospital need for his proof? He's not family, but no one else would claim the body.

katiemac said:

I have a character who

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Surrre you do.

Surrre you do.

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Yeah, yeah.

I was watching some Dateline show the other night and they were discussing a case where a woman was convicted of murdering her husband, partly due to Google searches they found on her computer, including "how to commit murder," "undetectable poisons," among other things.

I thought... "Oh, great!"

"Does anyone have a clue on the steps necessary to bury someone without going through a coroner first?"
Yes. Get a shovel and a remote location...LOL

Well, there needs to be death certificate, which would involve a coroner. Also, if the funeral home is not picking up the body from the hospital, how are they gonna get the body? You can't take a body YOURSELF to the funeral home.
And that scene from Little Miss Sunshine, where they come pick up the body out of the trunk... would never happen!