BODIES FOR MEDICAL SCHOOL

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 1 May 1937, Page 9

BODIES FOR MEDICAL SCHOOL

DISCUSSION AT BOARD MEETING EXPLANATION BY SECRETARY [By Telegraph • Preen Association] WELLINGTON, This Day. At a meeting of the Wellington Hospital Board Mr A. M. CroslAry said it appeared that the hospital, in common with others, was in the habit of sending bodies to the Medical School in Dunedin. He had been asked by the frien '.s of a deceased person to inquire why his body was sent to Dunedin without their being first advised and whether it was fair that the estate of a deceased person should be charged with burial expenses. The chairman (Mr J. Glover) ruled that the case should go before the proper committee, whereupon Mr Croskery said he would give the matter publicity. He said that the body was shipped to Dunedin five weeks before the consent of the relatives was obtained. Later the secretary said that the deceased person had no relatives in New Zealand and the friends who complained to Mr Croskery did not appear till at least a week after death. The body by that time had been sent to Dunedin. The secretary said that in cases where no relatives of deceased persons could be traced, it was not uncommon hospital practice, if the case had special medical features, f ,ir Ihe bodies to be sent to Dunedin i investigation in the interests of the community generally. When the actual position of the present case was ascertained, the body was returned to Wellington for interment.