I have worth!
There might be a depreciation table out there somewhere that diminishes me, but I don’t want to know about it.
At the very least, I know, since my department periodically buys them, that a cadaver costs about $2000, so that’s the floor on how much I’m worth.
Chris Capoccia says
liver is pretty high value considering that it could be donated multiple times
stroppy says
Thanks, I needed that. (I think.) Now I can finally go to my happy place…
Jazzlet says
I wonder how they manage to get the skeleton and, seperately, the bones?
komarov says
Depending on how well you’re liked, or possibly how intensely disliked you are among your colleagues, you or your salesman might be able to drive up the price a bit. Or you could consider an auction open to all interested parties: universities looking for research / training material, creationists eager to baptise your remains and claim it counts as a death-bed conversion or any other group of people with a grudge and/or lack of common sense and spare cash. However now we’re rapidly drifting into Star Trek territory, where the Ferengi vacuum-dessicate their corpses and sell discs of the result. Now I’m wondering if they sell off the organs first….
robro says
Looks like around $500,000 total. Not too shabby.
Michael says
Wow, who do I contact to sell my blood? I was in England in the 1990’s, so I’m not allowed to donate it for free (Mad Cow Scare), but I’d be happy to sell it for just $300/L (1/2 the going rate).
PZ Myers says
I’m still on blood thinners, so I can’t even give my blood away.
Brian Pansky says
Don’t forget the human brain! It’s a highly expensive versatile supercomputer with GENERAL INTELLIGENCE!
richardelguru says
@ Brian Pansky
The average human brain is vastly overrated!
PZ Myers says
The human brain is largely valuable as a nice fatty source of lipids, and it’s a great source if you want to purify microtubules.
Otherwise, it’s the worst transplant candidate and worth nothing to anyone else.
JustaTech says
Michael: I don’t know about whole blood, but I know you can sell white blood cells for about $500 for ~2 hours on the machine. Granted, most places won’t let you donate more than about once a month (for your own safety), and it’s more invasive/time consuming than giving whole blood (about the same as platelets).
I use white blood cells for research, so the odd prion probably wouldn’t matter, but I don’t know what the donation rules are for stuff that won’t be infused into other people.
stroppy says
“Otherwise, it’s the worst transplant candidate and worth nothing to anyone else.”
Until billionaires start collecting them as status items.
sparks says
Billionaires are looking for skulls, not brains stroppy. :) Haven’t you ever seen ‘Predator’?