Next year the state will have a new way to dispose of dead bodies where no next of kin is found or families don’t have the means to pay for a burial… and it could benefit students.
The Funeral and Burial Benefits program served thousands of Illinoisans who couldn’t afford funerals or cremation costs, but due to budget shortfalls, Gov. Bruce Rauner cut that program, leaving county coroner’s offices and funeral homes to pick up those costly tabs. But under this new law, those bodies will be given to medical schools and hospitals.
Representative Dan Brady, a Republican from Bloomington and formerly a county coroner says this will help county finances, but especially education.
“All of our schools are willfully in need of whole body donations. They are in need of cadavers to have scientific study to have medical training to do what needs to be done in that realm of things.”
There is a grace period, though the exact length is unspecified, before unclaimed remains would be donated.