Florida Statute 406.55
“Contracts for delivery of human remains after death prohibited”
What it means
Florida Statute 406.55 is a single sentence aimed at one arrangement: the anatomical board may not enter into any contract, oral or written, that provides for any sum of money to be paid to a living person in exchange for delivery of that person's remains to the board when the person dies.
The section binds the anatomical board itself — you cannot sell your future body to the state's cadaver program. The broader payment bans sit elsewhere: §406.61(3) bars any person or organization from offering valuable consideration for human remains, and §873.01 makes buying or selling human organs and tissue a felony.
How it plays out
People occasionally ask whether they can be paid now for donating their body later. Under this section the anatomical board cannot make that deal, and the surrounding law forecloses the private version — §406.61(3) prohibits offering valuable consideration for remains and §873.01 criminalizes organ and tissue sales. Whole-body donation in Florida is a gift. What a legitimate program can lawfully cover is costs — removal, storage, transportation — and that distinction is where every body-broker scandal starts.
Where this shows up
Pages on this site where § 406.55 does real work:
Questions people ask
