Robert Bouchie will never forget the day he was forced to value a human body at $0.

As the newly hired head of BU’s anatomical gift pro­gram and manager of the School of Medi­cine anatomy lab, Bouchie (SMG’92) was following protocol. A family had called about the ashes of their loved one. Typically, after medi­cal programs are fin­ished with donated bodies, the remains are cremated and mailed to the family by certified mail.

For insurance pur­poses, however, the Post Office requires that a value be stated.

“Declare the value?” Bouchie says. “What should I put? It’s a billion dollars, and that’s not enough. If someone’s life is changed because of any damage that’s done to this package, what is the value of that? It’s immeas­urable. And that’s what the Post Of­fice said: ‘You have to put zero because it’s impossible to replace.’”

Bouchie tells this story during a drive to Rockport, Massachusetts, on a warm July afternoon. Belted into a child’s car seat in the back row of his GMC Yukon is a blue package. Inside are the remains of Elizabeth Berninger, who was ninety-four years old at the time of her death from a cerebral hemorrhage last year.

Bouchie is bring­ing her home.

“It means a lot to me,” he says. “She was a part of my life. It’s a ceremonial step where I’ll finally say thank you to the family on behalf of BU and hand her over.”

Each year, 345 Boston University medical and dental students dissect and prosect some forty bodies — eight students per cadaver, four on each side. Bouchie would like to see a ratio closer to four to one, but BU is one of four medical programs competing for body donations in Massachusetts. Harvard leads the pack with upwards of 140 a year (Tufts University and the University of Massachusetts are the others). Nationally, it’s estimated that 20,000 bodies, from 115 whole body donation programs, are used each year to help prepare future doctors and dentists.

Unless the donor’s next of kin is beyond driving distance, Bouchie delivers the ashes himself. He has returned as many as four sets of remains in one day.

For this delivery, he is wearing dark slacks and a powder blue shirt and tie, with a dab of cologne, respectful but not somber.

“I usually don’t hand over the cremains until I’m ready,” he says. “I’ll keep the box on my lap while we talk. I like for it to be a special thing. Not just for me to hand them over and have the action just take place.”

Today, he is meeting with Berninger’s daughter, Marjorie Schell.

A friend offered him an apprenticeship at his funeral home, and Bouchie earned a degree in mortuary science. A casual conversation with the administrative director of pathology during a body pickup at Children’s Hos­pital Boston led to a job offer, and before he knew it, Bouchie was running the hospital’s morgue, where he directed the autopsies. At the same time, he began helping embalm anatomical donors at MED. In 2001, he was offered the position of anatomical gift coordinator and anatomy laboratory manager.

Since he’s signed on, donations, both financial and physical, have gone up notably. In 2001, the program received thirty-one whole body donations. Today, that number is closer to forty-five. Donor families have been known to request in their loved ones’ obituaries that contributions be made to the program in lieu of flowers. And this past spring, Bouchie’s colleagues recognized his work with twenty-one nomination letters for a Perkins Award, given annually to three outstanding nonfaculty members of the BU com­munity. Not surprisingly, he was selected.

The students perform music, read poetry and personal reflections, and hold a candle-lighting cere­mony. In her reading for the service, Tanya Donahou (MED’12) compares her team’s donor to a seed that bears fruit to nourish many.

“You are an exponential gift, from one man to eight future doctors to hundreds of patients to the multitudes that make up their family and friends,” she says. “You gave us access to the won­der that is human life and challenged us to discover all the intricate parts work­ing together to make one man.”

Buddy Ferreira, of Fal­mouth, Massachusetts, says attending the service, four floors above the anatomy lab, and meeting the stu­dents who worked on his mother gave him closure. He was so moved that he plans to amend his donor card.

“I was an organ donor and now I’m going change it,” he says. “I’m going to donate my body here, no question. Witnessing the students today and how important this is to them — that changed my mind.”

In fact, several times during the reception after the service, Bouchie runs downstairs to fetch paperwork for family mem­bers who have decided to donate their bodies to BU. The simple forms constitute an agreement, not a binding contract. Ultimately, it is up to family members to follow through with the wishes of their loved one.

Advertising for bodies, of course, is a delicate proposition. It’s not like Bouchie can stake out nursing homes or make cold calls. It’s mostly word of mouth.

“I would love to get a billboard on Route 1 that says, ‘You want to donate your body? Please investigate it. Here’s our Web site and telephone number.’" But it wouldn’t be tactful to do so,” he says, “and there’d be a lot of fallout.”

Final Chapter

Upon arrival in Rockport, Schell meets Bouchie, the blue package tucked under his arm, on the porch. In the living room, she pours a round of lemonade. Near a bookshelf stands an orchid from the memorial service. Bouchie made sure every family left with one.

He tells Schell the stu­dents who worked on her mother were thrilled to meet Schell.

“They were really magnetized by your mom and built a relationship with her. In a way, at the memorial service, they were meeting her through you.”

Bouchie reminds Schell, who has also decided to donate her body to BU, that her mother’s arteries had hardened from high cholesterol and that she should make sure to have regular physicals. Then Schell brings Bouchie to the foyer to look at a collage of photos of her mother, a moment that plays out on most deliveries.

“This is closure for me, too,” Bouchie tells Schell, at last handing over the blue package. “I’ve been with your mom, from the moment she passed until this moment. Even though, like you said, it’s a vessel, it is important for it to be in the right spot at the right time. Undamaged. That’s the most important thing to me — that this box gets to you undamaged.” ■

For information on how to make an anatomical gift, visit BU's Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology.