Horrified Texas lawmakers demand crackdown on body broker industry
An NBC News investigation that exposed how corpses were used for research without consent prompted Texas legislators to push new limits on the body trade.
This article is part of “Dealing the Dead,” a series investigating the use of unclaimed bodies for medical research.
Appalled Texas lawmakers called for a crackdown on the corpse trade Wednesday after they heard stories of unclaimed bodies’ being cut up and used for profit by medical schools, private brokers and health care companies.
The angry demands came during a state Senate Health and Human Services Committee hearing in response to an NBC News investigation that exposed how a Texas university took unclaimed bodies from local morgues and leased them to training facilities and medical device companies — without telling the dead people’s families. Sen. Tan Parker, a Republican, presented a pair of bills that would prohibit the activity and impose wider industry regulations, with jail terms for serious violations. He described the legislation as an attempt to heal wounds suffered by Texas families.
“You placed your trust in a system that should have treated your loved ones with care and respect, and that trust was broken badly,” Parker said. “This bill is more than policy. It is a promise, a promise that Texas will do better.”
Rating: 5