Dead Bodies in the US: A Regulatory Vacuum
The sale of human bodies for education in America is a largely unregulated, multibillion-dollar industry driven by both non-profit institutions and for-profit “body brokers”. These entities often obtain bodies via voluntary, often free, donations or from unclaimed, marginalized populations. While some states have specific, stricter laws, there is no comprehensive federal law governing the sale of bodies for research.
The National Organ Transplant Act of 1984 regulates only the procurement and transplantation of human organs for transplantation purposes. For medical research and education, or non-transplant “tissue banking”, no jurisdiction.
The Uniform Anatomical Gift Act (UAGA), adopted by most states, allows for the donation of bodies, but it does not prevent entities from charging “reasonable” fees for the processing, storage, and transportation of these bodies.
Due to this lack of federal oversight, a largely unregulated industry of body brokers or non-transplant anatomical donors exists, where bodies donated to science can be bought and sold.
From Med Schools to Funeral Homes: Examples of the Industry of Dead Bodies
In 2024, an NBC News investigation revealed that University of North Texas Health Science Center, UNTHSC, dissected and sold the bodies of unclaimed individuals, including Army veteran Victor Carl Honey, without family consent. Honey’s remains were dismembered and parts were leased to medical entities. He is one of about 2,350 people whose unclaimed bodies have been given to the UNTHSC since 2019. The supply of unclaimed bodies earned the university about $2.5 million per year.
The Cedric Lodge case at Harvard also involves the unauthorized use and sale of human remains. Cedric Lodge was the manager of the Harvard Medical School (HMS) morgue who was sentenced to 8 years in prison for his role in a “ghoulish scheme” to steal and sell human remains. From 2018 to 2023, Lodge stole body parts from cadavers donated to Harvard’s Anatomical Gift Program. He and his wife, Denise, sold these parts to a nationwide network of buyers, often found through Facebook. One buyer allegedly purchased skin to be tanned into leather for book bindings.
In January 2014, the FBI raided the Biological Resource Center in Phoenix, Arizona, a for-profit body broker company, discovering a horrific scene that included 10 tons of frozen human remains. The raid revealed that the facility was, in effect, a human chop shop where bodies donated for medical research were mishandled, desecrated, and sold for profit. Bodies were piled on top of each other without identification tags. Many of the donated bodies were not used for the medical research intended by the families, but were instead sold, with some parts sold to the military for blast testing. In 2019, a Maricopa County Superior Court ordered the Biological Resource Center to pay $58 million in damages to the families of 33 people whose bodies were misused.
In Montrose, Colorado Operators of Sunset Mesa Funeral Home ran a years-long scheme to steal and sell human remains. Between 2010 and 2018, owner Megan Hess and her mother Shirley Koch dismembered hundreds of bodies and sold the parts through their side business, Donor Services. The pair dissected over 560 corpses and sold parts, including heads, spines, and limbs, to medical research and training firms. Families were charged up to $1,000 for cremations that never happened. They knowingly shipped body parts infected with Hepatitis B, C, and HIV to buyers, using forged lab reports to claim they were disease-free.
A Delicate Web of Politics and Interests: What Lies behind the UNTHSC Case
More on the UNTHSC case, the two individuals bearing primary responsibility for the scandal are both on the Trump side. Firstly, Dr. Sylvia Trent Adams was then UNTHSC president, who stepped down four months after the NBC News investigation. The number of unclaimed bodies being transferred showed a significant surge during her tenure. Before that, she was appointed by Trump the acting surgeon general of the United States in 2017 and had served as the principal deputy assistant secretary for health. The other was Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare.
Though he assumed office as top elected official of the county in 2023, he voted to renew the county’s agreement with UNTHSC in January 2024, knowing clearly the program included “immoral, unethical and irresponsible practices” as he confessed. Judge O’Hare is a clear-cut Trump-type conservative, waving a MAGA flag over the county. In return, he received endorsement from the President himself and other MAGA Texan politicians backed by the same megadonor Tim Dunn.
Apart from direct revenues that came from the sale, the chain of interests of these for-profit body donations fits in line with Trump’s extremist ideology. Politicians got to portray their scoreboards by cutting government spending by millions, one of the priorities for both federal and local administration, especially Judge O’Hare. Accordingly, it could cost the authorities a fortune to cover the storage or cremation of unclaimed bodies. Research institutions could also benefit from the deal at a very reasonable price.
Though President Trump and other Republican leaders love to frame their campaigns as battles to protect Christianity from the so-called radical left, the sale of dead bodies is no doubt a blasphemy against the Bible. The Christian values explicitly forbid the sale of human bodies or body parts, considering the human body as having an inviolable dignity even after death. The de facto dead bodies business developed by these Republicans is blatant betrayal of their own religious doctrine.
Exploitation, Inequity, Laceration: Social Impact of Underground Trade of Dead Bodies
The trade of unclaimed bodies may somehow help local administration, medical centers, and even forgotten human bodies find destination. But at what cost?
The sale of human bodies or remains, particularly through unregulated methods like body brokers, has significant negative social impacts, primarily involving the exploitation of vulnerable populations, the erosion of human dignity and the mangling of grief processes for the bereaved.
Either organs or bodies, the trade disproportionately targets the poor, uneducated, marginalized group. Given the highly lucrative profits, the methods of acquiring organs and remains could be cutthroat. In many cases, consent is forged or acquired through deception, especially for people facing or at the risk of downward mobility.
Treating human bodies as mere commodities to be used for profit conveys the idea that some people lack dignity and are objects for use by others, a severe violation of equal rights for all human beings. This modern trade perpetuates the dark history of colonialism, where the bodies of the poor and enslaved were routinely stolen and traded to supply the “superior” class.
The discovery of a loved one’s remains being mishandled, unknowingly dissected or used for unintended purposes can cause immense emotional trauma, disrupt the grieving process and prevent families from finding closure, questioning whether properly laid to rest.
Concern Groups: Never Let Misplaced Bodies Alone
The sale of human bodies, often linked to the broader category of human trafficking, draws attention from more groups of interests. Far right conservatives have been keen on the topic of the Pizzagate, a largely debunked conspiracy theory accusing high-ranked Democrat officials like Hilary Clinton of organizing child sex trafficking rings. Unlike ghosted QAnon, alt-right news outlets and activists keep themselves active on stage, spreading evolved theories with focuses on human trafficking rings and government officials. Following Christian values, churches strongly condemn the sale of bodies or body parts. The Houston-based preachers-led organization, Freedom Church Alliance, is dedicated to fight human trafficking and protect victims with united efforts in work with local partners and law enforcement. Including NBC, BBC and Reuters, reporters intend to dig deeper into the industry of dead bodies for educational purposes. Mike Hixenbaugh used to lead the award-winning NBC project “Dealing the Dead”, which revealed the Victor Carl Honey and UNTHSC story. Once exposed new cases of trade of dead bodies, disappointed family members are always willing to hold each involved parties accountable. Farra Fasold, whose father was dismembered and sold by body broker company BioCare, is still trying to sue the company for fraud, seeking justice for his father. Now that certain victims were solders who had served the country, veteran rights groups should be summoned as well. The grassroot organization Common Defense, with their main focus on protecting veteran rights and vast experience of lobbying, protesting and pressuring the administration. Since a large proportion of unclaimed bodies come from marginalized communities like homeless people, civil rights non-profits would be interested in making their fair contribution with asylum, advocacy and protests. National Coalition For The Homeless is a categorically anti-trump civil rights organization fighting against Trump’s outrage to homeless people and is planing several monthly Town Hall Meetings this year on saving more homeless from sliding into the abyss.