410 ILCS 510/1

Superintendents of penitentiaries, houses of correction and bridewells, hospitals, state charitable institutions and county homes, coroners, sheriffs, jailors, funeral directors and all other state, county, town and city officers, in whose custody is the body of any deceased person, required to be buried at public expense, shall, in the absence of disposition of such body, or any part thereof by will or other written instrument, give permission to any physician or surgeon licensed in Illinois, or to any medical college or school, or other institution of higher science education or school of mortuary science, public or private, of any city, town or county, upon his or their receipt in writing and request therefor, to receive and remove free of public charge or expense, after having given proper notice to relatives or guardians of the deceased, the bodies of such deceased persons about to be buried at public expense, to be by him or them used within the state, for advancement of medical, anatomical, biological or mortuary science. Preference shall be given to medical colleges or schools, public or private and such bodies to be distributed to and among the same, equitably, the number assigned to each, being in proportion to the students of each college or school: except, if any person claiming to be, and satisfying the proper authorities that he is of kindred of the deceased asks to have the body for burial, it shall, in the absence of other disposition of such body, or any part thereof by will, court order or other written instrument, be surrendered for interment. Any medical college or school, or other institution of higher science education or school of mortuary science, public and private, or any officers of the same, that receive the bodies of deceased persons for the purposes of scientific study, under the provisions of this Act, shall furnish the same to students of medicine, surgery and biological or mortuary sciences, who are under their instruction, at a price not exceeding the sum of $5 for each and every such deceased body so furnished. (Source: Laws 1965, p. 1980.)