Welcome to the Drexel University College of Medicine Body Donor Program! Our body donation program is managed through the Humanity Gifts Registry of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

For more information, please view our FAQs or contact Sara Solomon at 215.991.8858 or sms858@drexel.edu for our University City Campus or Jennifer Lees at 267.857.6835 or jl4467@drexel.edu for our West Reading Campus.

2026 HGR Celebration of Remembrance

On Tuesday, May 12, 2026, the Humanities Gifts Registry hosted the Celebration of Remembrance, an annual event honoring the individuals who donated their bodies to medical education and research. All Philadelphia medical schools participated in this memorial event attended by the family members and loved ones of the donors.

The Celebration of Remembrance is made possible by Philadelphia’s medical students, and Drexel’s very own medical students were among the event's volunteers:

• Eulogists: Adrees Basharmal and Ayaan Memon
• Reading of names: Anvi Brahmbhatt, Nikki A. Holmes, Agrani "Ani" Dixit, Jamie Flogel, Sarah Lucenko, Ananya A. Rao, Annie Curran, Adeeb Hossain, Elly Murillo, Thomas Li, Elizabeth Lin
• Musical performances:
  • Gabriela Godin performed "At the Mid Hour of Night" by Benjamin Britten
  • Sophie Geagan performed "People" by Barbara Streisand
  • Doctor's Note: Gabriela Godin, Kyle Chan, Amelia Shaddinger, Simon Coroza, Anna Tooke, Annie Hancock, Ashley Nguyen, Aamir Vahora and Baotram Nguyen performed "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" by Harold Arlen
• Candlelighters: Ore Fambegbe and Katherine L. Lumahan
• Greeters: Nali Moon and Albert K. Tran

Eulogies

Adrees Basharmal

Good afternoon, everyone. It is such a wonderful opportunity to be here and meet with you.
Today, we gather to reflect upon the lives of the people who so generously donated themselves to our education. We honor the lives they lived prior to their donation, we cherish the knowledge they shared with us in the anatomy lab, and we recognize the lives they will continue to live in each one of us moving forward. I hope that I can adequately express the depth of appreciation that our class feels.

When we first entered the anatomy lab, our class carried a mix of emotions. There was curiosity, anticipation, excitement and also fear. For some of us, it was our first time being with a donor body. For others, we really began to feel the weight of the road ahead as medical students. Above all of these feelings was a shared commitment. We wanted to do right by our donors.

I was grateful to take a humanities course during my time as a first-year medical student hosted by our school’s beloved Dr. Homaira Azim. This class was called “Reflections on Dissection,” and it gave us a space outside of the lab room to reflect more deeply on the generosity of our donors. We were encouraged to really sit with our feelings of gratitude, to confront discomfort, and to recognize the profound sacrifice that our donors had made for us.

As our year went on and we grew more comfortable working with one another and being in the lab, the space changed. It evolved from a place of study to a place of reflection. There were always moments where we would pause and look at one another and wonder what the lives of our donors were like before being with us. What was their favorite song, what made them smile, what made them cry, what was their story? In their stillness, they showed us their humanity.

Your loved ones made this gracious decision to donate themselves to our education. From them, we learned more than any book or lecture could teach us. They were our first patient. They taught us humility in the responsibility we will carry as physicians, and the trust between providers and those who seek care. As our class moves forward and finds their paths in medicine and healthcare, we will carry with us the lessons that we learned from those we honor today. In every patient we meet and in every decision we make, they will be with us.

To the families and friends that are here with us today to celebrate their gift, thank you. Thank you for your generosity, thank you for your trust and thank you for your presence. You are just as a much a part of our education as your gracious loved ones. I hope you can feel my class’s deepest gratitude and respect as we return your loved ones to you today.

Thank you so much.

Ayaan Memon

A donor serves as the first time a physician truly learns the body, and the foundation upon which their knowledge is built on. They guide a doctor’s hands and minds as their first patient, and for every single patient after that. The knowledge they impart will underlie the diagnoses we make, the answers we provide and the questions we ask. Their contribution is a part of everything we do, and so are they.

A donor grounds our idealized love for medicine in responsibility, turning our fascination into duty and purpose. As a first year medical student, we come in fresh, bright-eyed and arrogant. “We’ve made it,” we think, as if the hard part is over. But after being introduced to our donor, we are given a taste of the necessary responsibility and conviction that we must develop in our field. The gift that we have been entrusted with reminds us that we aren’t just learning for knowledge’s sake, but to make good in the trust placed in us.

Finally, a donor teaches us an openness to continuous learning. Nothing is ever like our lectures or our textbook, and we quickly learn that no amount of studying will ever grant us “expertise” over the body. Each person is beautifully and wonderfully different, and that uniqueness humbles us in our understanding (and lack thereof) when a donor’s gifts are used. It forces us to switch from the mindset of an authority to a learner, never using our knowledge as a conclusive definition of a person but as a springboard to ask questions. That lesson in humility is what separates a good doctor from a bad one.

I’m also here to thank the people who supported that decision for my donor and any donor they know, no matter how hard it was for them. I remember the fierce protectiveness I felt over my grandfather’s body when he died, watching every person that approached his casket with a suspicion that I did not recognize. It was also difficult for my family to accept his desire to donate, despite knowing it is what he wanted. I want to thank the loved ones who had to wrestle with the hardship that came with honoring those wishes. I also want to thank you for delaying any end-of-life rituals so that his body could teach us through this past year. Myself, and my classmates, feel incredibly honored by the sacrifices that you have made and want to emphasize the ways that they have impacted us. No one can take it away from them how their legacy has made an indelible mark on innumerable lives.

So, how is it that we as medical students make good on that legacy? Our school teaches us to honor these gifts with respect in the classroom, but how is it possible to honor someone enough in the one year that we learn anatomy? The answer is simple – we can’t. I think that to truly respect these gifts, we keep this sacrifice in mind throughout the entirety of our time as physicians. Before each difficult exam, through each challenging case, and for all of the doubts in our abilities, a donor reminds us that there was someone who believed enough in us to make the sacrifice that they did. For each time that we are tired of our system or dissatisfied with the direction of our field, their faith reminds us that our disillusionment ignores the trust of thousands who chose to believe otherwise.

A donor’s sacrifice is a lesson in responsibility, humility, and is a foundation of our skills – but beyond all of those things, its greatest gift is the immortal reminder of a patient’s belief in physicians everywhere, pushing us to grow and learn more than we thought capable. Thank you for your belief and for every gift you’ve given – we will always strive to live up to what you saw in us.

About Whole-Body Donation

Whole-body donation is when an individual donates their body to medical education and research. It is considered one of the most selfless gifts an individual can give to medical education and research. This unmatched gift will help our Drexel University students learn about human anatomy and teach them materials that cannot compare to a traditional textbook.

The main courses that benefit from whole-body donation are professional level Gross Anatomy courses. Anatomy is the study of the structure and function of the human body while Gross Anatomy is the study of body structures large enough to be examined without the help of magnifying devices. It is one of the most important courses in the education of doctors, nurses, physical therapists, and many other health care professionals.

The gift of body donation plays a critical role in helping medical and health-related science students master the complex anatomy of the human body and provides researchers with an essential tool for making discoveries to aid in the advancement of medical science.

Body Donation in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

In Pennsylvania, all whole-body donations must be made through the Humanity Gifts Registry. Please contact the registry at 215.922.4440 or visit their website at hgrpa.org for more information.

Related Stories

• 2023 Celebration of Remembrance speech presented by Skylar Henderson
• Honors Anatomy and Physiology Visits Drexel's Cadaver Lab (The Episcopal Academy News)
• Episode 164: Sara Solomon – From Medical Curiosity To A Passion For Forensics And Teaching (People of Pathology Podcast)
• Employee Spotlight: What's it Like to Work With Medical-School Cadavers?
• Dennis Depace, PhD, On Teaching Gross Anatomy
• Celebration of Remembrance

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