Special Report: U.S. body brokers supply world with torsos, limbs and heads
Excerpt: ...the shipment bound for Europe included about 6,000 pounds of human remains valued at $67,204. To keep the merchandise from spoiling, the container’s temperature was set to 5 degrees Fahrenheit. The body parts came from a Portland business called MedCure Inc. A so-called body broker, MedCure profits by dissecting the bodies of altruistic donors and sending the parts to medical training and research companies. MedCure sells or leases about 10,000 body parts from U.S. donors annually, shipping about 20 percent of them overseas, internal corporate and manifest records show. (Ron P.: I have to admit this is a new one on me. This very in-depth article from Reuters examines the ins and outs of the business and its problems like infectious diseases. It also raises some interesting issues. Overcome your squeamishness and read it–if you dare. Halloween won’t be around for another 9 months, Bwa-ha-ha-ha. Seriously, “leasing body parts?” Oh, my. Link may not be live, neither are the body parts.)
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"...military records show that at least 20 other bodies were also used in blast experiments w/o permission..."
ReplyDeleteBRC sold donated bodies like Stauffer’s for $5,893 each.
Army officials involved in the project said they never received the consent forms that donors or their families had signed. Rather, the officials said they relied on assurances from BRC that families had agreed to let the bodies be used in such experiments.
BRC, which sold more than 20,000 parts from some 5,000 human bodies over a decade, is no longer in business. Its former owner, Stephen Gore, pleaded guilty to fraud last year. In a statement to Reuters, Gore said that he always tried to honor the wishes of donors and sent consent forms when researchers requested them.
Jim Stauffer learned of his mother’s fate not from BRC or the Army but from a Reuters reporter."
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-bodybrokers-industry/