The body donation service scrupulously accepts and honours all pledges sent to its attention.
However, it formally refuses bodies donated by a family or close friends after the death of a person who has never contacted the body donation secretariat and who has not completed a pledge form.
In exceptional circumstances, an explicit holographic document, certified by a notary public or confirmed by an attending physician, may be considered as equivalent to a pledge. The rule is, however, that a pledge is only considered effective when it is referenced in the body donation records and relayed by the family or a close relative.
In exceptional cases, the body donation service may have to refuse a body, particularly for technical reasons when :
a very extensive surgical operation, an autopsy or an organ removal has been carried out by the medical profession, because these manoeuvres render the body unfit for embalming;
- the death was caused by violence or by a serious accident and an autopsy is required by the public prosecutor, for the same reasons;
- the average time of 48 to 72 hours since death has been exceeded, making conservation impossible;
- the donor was a carrier of a highly contagious disease likely to expose laboratory personnel and researchers to a risk of contamination;
- the laboratory facilities would eventually reach saturation.
One of the rare causes of disputes between the body donation service and the families of the donors is the fact that the persons in charge of being the benevolent relay of the donor's promise are not sufficiently informed and do not accept the practical and financial conditions of the body donation. Under these conditions, in order not to create unnecessary conflict, the body donation service renounces the execution of the promise made to it.