Why people leave their bodies to medical research – and what happens

Helping find answers to hereditary diseases, training surgeons or wanting to leave an educational legacy are the reasons. But what sort of people donate bodies to science?

The first thing you notice as you walk into the operating theatre is the smell. There isn't one. There's no whiff of chemical preservatives, no sniff of disinfectant and, reassuringly, no smell of bodies. The room is brightly lit, spotlessly clean and there's little noise apart from the buzz of air-conditioning units, the clatter of surgical tools and hushed conversation.

It takes a while to get your bearings in such as clinical environment. It's only when you do that you notice the dismembered human arms lying on bloodstained white absorbent pads on the stainless steel operating tables. Some have been severed above the elbow, others at the shoulder. Their waxy flesh is bruised - a natural process caused by the settling of blood after death - and their palms are covered with purple pen marks and deep incisions. Pairs of trainee surgeons in blue gowns and latex gloves work on each arm, supervised by consultants. This morning they dissected the fingers and palms, prising apart the skin to expose garish yellow layers of fat and chalk-white bones. This afternoon they are practising tendon repair.