Here in Okinawa, Japan, I have signed the rather detailed legal papers to leave my body for two years to the local medical school to use. (Required notarized signatures from 2 family members, etc. etc.)
Here they have quite a lovely system. "Deigo" is a beautiful flowering tree here, so the "Deigo Society" is for those who have agreed to donate their bodies after death. You get a wallet-card, and once a year the Medical School hosts a gala lunceon at a local hotel for all the members. At the lunceon some speakers give the report on how many bodies have been harvested the previous year, and a booklet is printed with the foto and biography of each donor. There are performances of traditional Okinawan songs and dances, and the atmosphere is quite pleasant. At each round 10-person table there is one impeccably dressed medical student who politely serves tea to his/her future cadaver specimens. At the end all the medical students form a long line at the exit and bow in gratitude as the members (about 250 at the last lunceon) exit. Nice.
After the stipulated time for use of each group of cadavers the University gathers the family members at the crematorium for the return of the remains. Medical students and patients give short talks thanking the families, Buddhist, Shinto & Christian prayers are offered and then while the bodies are being cremated a lunch is served. Then the cremated remains are returned to each family to take to their tombs.
At the University there is a beautiful memorial garden with large stones upon which the names of each person who donated their body is inscribed at the time of the donation.
I suspect that if more places did it this nicely many more people would agree to donate their bodies. While it is a wonderful thing to do, the idea of just "leaving my body to science" can sound sort of cold unless the beauty of the gift is somehow celebrated. It's nice to leave this world, I think, making one final gift to help others.
Fr. Pat