Letter: Unwanted donation

Sir: With reference to the article 'Beware, Aunt Edna, if you give your all' (7 July), in practice the chances of one's body being accepted for research or dissection are fairly remote. Believing that once the spirit has fled, the body is of no value except perhaps for medical purposes, both my husband and I filled in the appropriate forms. But when he died I was told that his body could not be accepted, and that only one in ten of those offered are in fact taken.

I still hope my own may in due course be more fortunate and be of use to some student of medicine.

Yours faithfully,

KATHLEEN CASSIDY

Richmond, Surrey

10 July