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Cut up and leased out, the bodies of the poor suffer a final indignity in Texas (www.nbcnews.com)

submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

17 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Long before his bleak final years, when he struggled with mental illness and lived mostly on the streets, Victor Carl Honey joined the Army, serving honorably for nearly a decade. And so, when his heart gave out and he died alone 30 years later, he was entitled to a burial with military honors.

Instead, without his consent or his family’s knowledge, the Dallas County Medical Examiner’s Office gave his body to a state medical school, where it was frozen, cut into pieces and leased out across the country.

A Swedish medical device maker paid $341 for access to Honey’s severed right leg to train clinicians to harvest veins using its surgical tool. A medical education company spent $900 to send his torso to Pittsburgh so trainees could practice implanting a spine stimulator. And the U.S. Army paid $210 to use a pair of bones from his skull to educate military medical personnel at a hospital near San Antonio.

In the name of scientific advancement, clinical education and fiscal expediency, the bodies of the destitute in the Dallas-Fort Worth region have been routinely collected from hospital beds, nursing homes and homeless encampments and used for training or research without their consent — and often without the approval of any survivors, an NBC News investigation found.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

This is complicated to unravel and has lots of similarities to the Tri-State Crematory Scandal.

Who owns a dead body? Does the state? Does the family? Take religion out of the picture for a few minutes as well so we can properly separate church and state. Someone dies without (available at that moment) relatives or a will defining what happens with the body. Alternatively someone dies and has not actually paid for the stuff stipulated in their will and does not have the resources to do so. What should happen? Something possibly like, in order,

The family owns the body
The facility where the person died owns the dead body
The state owns the body if those fall through

Dead bodies can’t just sit around. They can cause serious health and environmental problems if not properly disposed of, so something has to be done. Remember, we’ve set aside religion, so a dead body is literally just a resource. It can be turned into cremains, it can be buried, or it can be sold for various uses. What should the state regulate here? What’s wrong with the state turning a dead body into some money? How much responsibility do families have in respecting last wishes? How much time and effort should the state put into investigating those? Do dead bodies really matter? How much land are we willing to turn over to cemeteries today? In ten years? In one hundred years?

Now if you bore with me this long and agree that dead bodies can be sold, I also strongly feel like there should be compensation to these families with interest for that shit. If you steal my resources and don’t tell me, the state already requires repayment. That’s what should happen here. It gets murkier once you add religion back in because you can’t really undo a lot of these things.

Dallas County is doing something wrong. But it’s way more complicated underneath the hood than normal Texas government shenanigans.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

Texas is an absolute shithole as a result of 28 years of Republican leadership.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It's Texas, they hate everyone that isn't on the line... I'm really interested in how many people will piss on Abbott's grave

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

I'm really interested in how many people will piss on Abbott's grave

Me too. I also wonder how soon we will find out.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago

Disproportionately Black, male, mentally ill and homeless

Surprise, surprise

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Isn't this the sort of thing that can happen when you check the box saying you're willing to be an organ donor?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It's probably more like a clause in their military contracts

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

No.

Militaries aren't in the habit of selling the dead. They are in the business of making the dead. This is more the wheel house of greedy doctors.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Yes. And the "survivors" don't have a say in that if the person itself said otherwise before dying.

Training future doctors is a good cause and will most likely save lives in a similar fashion to donating a heart after all.

Edit: I removed a wrong part here claiming that the article is clickbait. I was off by a mile, see the reply to this post as to why.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

In no way is this clickbait. It's a truly ugly thing that was done to these people.

None of these people volunteered their bodies to science.

The college made a deal with 2 Texas counties to take homeless peoples bodies, "try" to find their relatives, and if they couldnt, then sell their bodies to companies, hospitals and the US army. The college made $2 million+ selling these peoples bodies without consent, to the point where they were expanding their cadavers storage facilities.

Can you see the issue with an organization that is responsible for finding the loved ones of these dead people, but is paid millions of dollars if they don't? Turns out, after filing a foia request, the reporters were able to find dozens of these homeless people families, sometimes within minutes of trying. Many times there were active missing persons reports, or in one case the next of kin lived in the same city and had the same name as his deceased father. In one case, the family found out about their deceased father after he was already sold. To get him back, they were made to sign a waver allowing the donations. They sold the body again, and did not return it for 1.5 years. When they did, his ashes came in a box with a generic thank you letter and a bill of $56 for shipping.

On publishing their results, the multimillion dollar corpse factory shut itself down and fired its directors. The two Texas counties working with them are opening investigations. When the reporters contacted the companies and the army about the bodies, they all confirmed that they thought the bodies came from intentional and purposeful donations. None of them knew the actual source.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

Hm I was clearly wrong, I apologize! The excuse is that I was really tired and already quite "clickbait state of mind" ish.

Thank you for taking the time to write this! ♥

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 months ago

No iirc donating your body to science and organ donation are completely different.

And it doesn't sound like he donated his body to science, if he did there would almost definitely be a paper trail because it is a hell of a hassle.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Jfc everything is a subscription

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Repost from yesterday: https://lemmy.world/post/19828304

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Why is it always Texas?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

Because the Texas government it's all life, unless it's either unborn, or extremely rich.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago

Texan's don't need big gubment yankees protectin us from what is clearly profit. I tell you what. /s

Honestly though, Hank would be disappointed. Cotton however, you might find him headed to the county graveyard with a shovel and Dale trailing not far behind.