Texas medical program stops using unclaimed bodies following NBC News investigation

The University of North Texas Health Science Center had dissected, studied and leased out the bodies of hundreds of people, even as some families searched for them.

This article is part of “Dealing the Dead,” a series investigating the use of unclaimed bodies for medical research.

The University of North Texas Health Science Center will stop accepting unclaimed bodies following an NBC News investigation that documented how the Fort Worth program cut up and leased out the remains of poor people for training and research without consent from the dead or their families.

The center’s president, Sylvia Trent-Adams, announced the decision in a Monday afternoon email to students, faculty and staff. The move was prompted, she said, by documents uncovered while responding to reporters’ public-records requests about the center’s Willed Body Program.

“The documents uncovered through these requests revealed details into the program of which HSC leadership was not previously aware,” Trent-Adams wrote.

Among the revelations were “a lack of sufficient controls and oversight” of how outside companies handled and used corpses provided by the Health Science Center. Trent-Adams said leadership had been unaware that the body program was routinely shipping unclaimed remains — including those of U.S. military veterans — across state lines. 

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/university-north-texas-stops-using-unclaimed-bodies-rcna171452

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