Donating body parts like eyes, heart, kidneys is very common these days.But many people say “Ewww!" when it comes to Brain donation.Mainly because it is not as prevalent as donating other body parts.Brain donation is when a person decides to and gets into the procedure to donate his/her brain for medical research following his/her death.
The basic difference between donating brain and donating other body parts is; brain can not be used for transplanting like other body parts can.Brain tissues can be donated and used only for research work.And one more big difference is, the brain can’t be kept alive with machines the way the heart can for donation. That is why, the brain tissue needs to be donated within 12 hours of the donor's death for it to be useful to researchers.
Who is suitable for donating a brain?..Actually it depends on the needs of researcher or the brain bank where you are going to donate.Brain banks collect post-mortem human brains to foster research into human CNS function and disease.They give advertisements from time to time and specify their conditions about age, type of disorder the donor should have and other things. But it doesn't mean researchers want brains only with disorders and abnormalities.They also need 'normal' brains to study, compare and differentiate between what is 'normal' and what is really 'abnormal'. Its just that some researcher have concentrated on specific studies and some on another.
How the brain is removed? - Brain is removed by Autopsy or Biopsy. The whole brain is removed by autopsy and in biopsy,only a sample of tissue is removed.The pathologist (physician) makes an incision at the back of the head at the hairline, and the brain is removed. There is a misconception that You can’t have an open casket funeral if you donate your brain.But its nor true Because the skull remains there and the person is not disfigured in any way. You can not even tell whether the brain has been removed.
Here you can see a scenario in a brain bank. Its the largest Brain Bank in the world:-
link
I wanted to give information about general brain donation process, but it seems to be variating according to the institutions and brain banks.
One more important thing is; the person who want to donate brain (or anything that owns to him actually)should talk to his/her relatives.It is important, because when he/ she dies, its going to be their responsibility to do further processes.
In this case, Whoever has responsibility for his/her body will have the final say in whether or not he/she is a brain donor...Therefore, if you want to be a brain donor, you have to talk to your family and make your wishes known.
There is shortage of brain tissue donations because unawareness or misconceptions. But we have to remove them because donating a brain, helps a lot ..to understand other brains.
Some other links:
link
link
The basic difference between donating brain and donating other body parts is; brain can not be used for transplanting like other body parts can.Brain tissues can be donated and used only for research work.And one more big difference is, the brain can’t be kept alive with machines the way the heart can for donation. That is why, the brain tissue needs to be donated within 12 hours of the donor's death for it to be useful to researchers.
Who is suitable for donating a brain?..Actually it depends on the needs of researcher or the brain bank where you are going to donate.Brain banks collect post-mortem human brains to foster research into human CNS function and disease.They give advertisements from time to time and specify their conditions about age, type of disorder the donor should have and other things. But it doesn't mean researchers want brains only with disorders and abnormalities.They also need 'normal' brains to study, compare and differentiate between what is 'normal' and what is really 'abnormal'. Its just that some researcher have concentrated on specific studies and some on another.
How the brain is removed? - Brain is removed by Autopsy or Biopsy. The whole brain is removed by autopsy and in biopsy,only a sample of tissue is removed.The pathologist (physician) makes an incision at the back of the head at the hairline, and the brain is removed. There is a misconception that You can’t have an open casket funeral if you donate your brain.But its nor true Because the skull remains there and the person is not disfigured in any way. You can not even tell whether the brain has been removed.
Here you can see a scenario in a brain bank. Its the largest Brain Bank in the world:-
link
I wanted to give information about general brain donation process, but it seems to be variating according to the institutions and brain banks.
One more important thing is; the person who want to donate brain (or anything that owns to him actually)should talk to his/her relatives.It is important, because when he/ she dies, its going to be their responsibility to do further processes.
In this case, Whoever has responsibility for his/her body will have the final say in whether or not he/she is a brain donor...Therefore, if you want to be a brain donor, you have to talk to your family and make your wishes known.
There is shortage of brain tissue donations because unawareness or misconceptions. But we have to remove them because donating a brain, helps a lot ..to understand other brains.
Some other links:
link
link