Florida Statute 406.57
“Distribution of human remains”
What it means
Once remains reach the anatomical board — unclaimed under §406.50 or willed under §406.56 — Florida Statute 406.57 controls where they go. The board or its authorized agent takes and receives the remains and must either distribute them equitably among the medical and dental schools, teaching hospitals, medical institutions, and health-related teaching programs that require cadaveric material for study, or loan them to accredited colleges of mortuary science or to medical or dental examining boards for educational or research purposes.
Equitable distribution is the operative idea: no single school owns the supply.
- The board must distribute remains equitably among medical and dental schools, teaching hospitals, medical institutions, and health-related teaching programs needing cadaveric material.
- Alternatively it may loan remains to accredited colleges of mortuary science or to medical or dental examining boards.
- Both routes serve educational or research purposes, and receiving institutions must first be approved under §406.59.
How it plays out
Families who ask us where a donated body actually goes get this section as the answer: into Florida's teaching system, allocated by the board rather than sold or negotiated. That matters after the body-broker scandals elsewhere — for board remains the distribution channel is statutory, the recipients are named categories of institutions, and the use is confined to education and research. When a family wants specifics for one decedent, the anatomical board is the office holding the placement records.