Halloween offers various exotic theories about what may become of our bodies after our deaths: they may stalk the earth in the guise of vampires, zombies or other members of the living dead. Or, more prosaically, they may be used in scientific research. Once upon a time doctors and medical students wishing to practice dissection had to rely on the likes of Burke and Hare to provide them with a supply of cadavers. Today anyone may leave their body to science, subject to legal caveats under the Human Tissue Act. How can you donate your body? How might it be used? Under what circumstances might it be rejected? 

STEVE MOORE, the dissection manager at The London Hospital and the keeper of the Elephant Man's skeleton, will reveal all.
Many of us are squeamish about donating our body after our death (even though it's not something we're likely to have much use for) or maybe we subscribe to religious beliefs which hold that only those with complete bodies will gain admittance to heaven. But perhaps we could sneak past the Pearly Gates with the odd missing cornea or kidney. Organ donation is a way for a tiny part of us to live on after our death as part of someone else's body. Surgeon WILLIAM AYLIFFE tells the history of organ transplantation, of incredible pioneering surgery and of lives saved - or transformed - by the generosity of the deceased. Organ donor cards will be available.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

William Ayliffe is a Consultant Ophthalmologist at The Lister Hospital in London, specialising in inflammatory eye diseases and corneal and cataract surgery. He has worked in developing countries and with ORBIS, the international flying eye hospital. He also carries out clinical research into the prevention of blindness.

Steve Moore is the dissection manager at Queen Mary College University of London as well as the Pathology collections at Bart's and Whitechapel. He was one of the prime movers in securing the funding to open Bart's Pathology Museum, ranked by CNN as one of the ten weirdest medical museums in the world.