Scots would rather donate organs than pay funeral costs

Warning that relatives may still end up with hefty bills

Desperate Scots are trying to donate their bodies to science to escape soaring funeral costs, an inquiry by MPs has been told.

However, some of the bodies end up being rejected because of disease, post-mortems or because anatomy departments are full up – landing relatives with the shock of hefty bills.

Now the inquiry is being urged to help people understand that bequeathal is not “an alternative to paying for a funeral”.

The alarm has been raised by the Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification at Dundee University, which receives up to 200 applications to donate bodies every year.

Professor Sue Black, the centre’s director, said it was accepting around 80 bodies each year, to be studied by medical students – up from only 20 a decade ago.

Some people approach the centre to offer their bodies after death as a thank you for treatment by the NHS, or to avoid a traditional religious funeral, the professor said.

But she said the Dundee area had – after Glasgow and Inverclyde – the worst poverty in Scotland, adding: “It is therefore not unusual for our bequeathal secretary to receive calls that will relate to concerns over funeral costs.

“People getting closer to the grave realise they have not set aside the £3,000 or £4,000 that their family will have to find to pay for their funeral.

“In a deprived area like this, they don’t want their family to have that burden – but there is no guarantee that we will accept the body, which may come as a shock to the families.”

Professor Black said she believed other anatomy departments across the UK were in the same situation, with many able to accept far fewer bodies.

Her own department received applications from England andWales, as well as from across Scotland.

The inquiry has been launched by the Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee amid fears that more people are being plunged into“funeral poverty ”.

The cost of even a basic funeral has leapt to £3,702, a rise of £140 in just 12 months, a report late last year revealed.

More than 20,000 applications for funeral payments – to cover the cost of a coffin, memorial and funeral directors’ fees – are rejected by the Government every year.