Wife of Scots professor who donated body called process 'deeply impressive'
28.08.2022 - 06:57
/ dailyrecord.co.uk
Her husband was a teacher all his life and Joyce Faulkner said even in death he wanted to be able to educate others.
Jim McIntosh made the decision to donate his body to medical science so surgeons and could continue to learn. He and 216 people in Scotland last year are known as “silent teachers” – extraordinary people who want their bodies to be used to help doctors and medics.
It’s now the focus of an exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland, which reveals that societal change in the way people more openly speak about death, fewer people regularly attending church and increasing funeral costs have led to an increased interest. Joyce, from South Queensferry, said it was hearing an interview with former anatomy professor Dame Sue Black that convinced her and her husband it was the right thing to do.
And when she officially passed her late husband’s body to the anatomy department at Edinburgh University, she was deeply impressed that he was being treated as “somebody” and not just “a body.”
She said: “I’d heard an episode of Desert Island Discs that featured Sue Black. She was inspirational and talked a lot about the importance of body donation.
“I immediately thought it was a good idea, talked it over with my husband and we both thought it was well worth doing – to contribute to the doctors and surgeons of the future.”
After Jim’s death at 87, Joyce expected the process of signing over his body to be quick and upsetting. Instead, bequest coordinator Laura Shiels wanted to know all about Jim’s life.
Joyce, 67, said: “She was interested in Jim as a person. He wasn’t just ‘some body’. He was ‘somebody’ – that helped me a lot.
“Jim was head of English at Dundee College of Education and he was an inspirational teacher.
“He