The unregulated body parts industry is booming—with heads going for $3K

[Kamaji]

The unregulated body parts industry is booming—with heads going for $3K

By Joshua Rhett Miller
June 28, 2023

A nationwide network of stolen body parts allegedly involving a Harvard Medical School morgue manager has revealed a thriving and macabre market for human remains, experts told The Post.

Federal prosecutors allege Cedric Lodge, 55, stole body parts including heads and brains that were donated for research at Harvard Medical School and intended for eventual cremation.

Lodge, who previously managed Harvard’s Anatomical Gift Program, and his wife, Denise allegedly sold them online to buyers from 2018 through last August.

Federal prosecutors said the “egregious” sprawling conspiracy also involved an Arkansas mortuary employee who sold body parts on Facebook for nearly $11,000 and a Massachusetts store owner who bought a human skull to create a “killer clown”-style doll she later shared on Instagram.

A body donated for science — be it to a university or other research facility — is often only used for particular parts; what remains may then be sold by a body-broker to sell to other facilities, collectors or, really, anyone.

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Source:  https://nypost.com/2023/06/28/the-body-parts-industry-is-boomingwith-heads-going-for-2k/

[sneakypete]

Just one more thing added to the list of "Things I will never understand,and am grateful for it."

[GtHawk]

Just one more thing added to the list of "Things I will never understand,and am grateful for it."

There is a legitimate need for body parts, students study them in medical school, surgeons use them to practice procedures before cutting on the patient. This isn't the first time someone lined their pockets selling body parts to unsuspecting buyers. My wife used to work for a reconstructive plastic surgeon and had to procure hands and other parts for him to work on to insure he was as sharp as possible prior to the actual surgery. Interesting thing is the person she contacted for 'parts' Worked out of UCI medical school and was the perpetrator of the last big scandal over illicit body parts sales.

Many have never been told how their family members' bodies were used. UCI auditors accounted for 121 of the 441 cadavers donated to the Willed Body Program between January 1995 and the time the program was shut down temporarily in August 1999. Brown was hired to direct the program in May 1996. (Brown was the name of the guy my wife dealt with legitimately but he also had a thriving black market business as you can see by how many bodies were unaccounted for in the audit)

About twenty years ago I was doing a biology lab remodel at Biola University and saw the donated body after student had finished with it(not pretty) taken out and the new donated cadaver brought in. Between my knowledge of the illegal sales of body parts and the use of medical cadavers I decided I would never donate my body to science. It makes no matter knowing that what was me was no longer in my body it just gives me the willies!

[Smokin Joe]

Someone else wants a Lambo...

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

I'd gladly donate mine, lately i'm not using it.