Texas probes medical school's use of bodies without consent following NBC News investigation

The University of North Texas Health Science Center's failure to obtain permission before using corpses for research may have violated state law, authorities said.

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

Texas state regulators are investigating a medical school’s failure to notify surviving family members before cutting up and leasing out the bodies of their loved ones. 

The Texas Funeral Service Commission notified the University of North Texas Health Science Center on Oct. 18 that it was opening an investigation into the center’s body donation program, according to a letter obtained by reporters this week through a public records request. 

The notice of complaint was issued one month after NBC News published an investigation revealing that the Fort Worth-based center had dissected, studied and leased out hundreds of unclaimed bodies without prior consent from the dead or any survivors. 

The center’s failure to obtain permission from next of kin before using corpses for medical research — and its refusal to immediately release remains to survivors who came forward later — may have violated state law, Funeral Service Commission investigator Rudy Villarreal wrote in the letter addressed to the Health Science Center’s president, Sylvia Trent-Adams, who has since resigned. Villarreal also alleged that the center failed to get permission from regulators before shipping bodies and body parts across state lines. 

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/texas-medical-school-bodies-consent-investigation-rcna193608

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