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from the selling-bodies-for-fun-and-profit dept.
From Reuters:
Two major Dutch hospitals say they will stop importing human body parts from American firms, which they have been doing without any regulation for a decade. The hospitals told Reuters in recent weeks they made their decisions on ethical grounds. The move comes amid investigations by U.S. law enforcement into some so-called body brokers - companies that obtain the dead, often through donation, dissect them and sell the parts for profit.
Earlier this year, Reuters reported that one broker under scrutiny by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation - Portland, Oregon-based MedCure - has used a Dutch hub to distribute tens of thousands of kilograms of human body parts across Europe since 2012. U.S. authorities suspect MedCure sold body parts tainted with disease to American and foreign customers, a concern triggered in part by such shipments to Canada and Hong Kong, according to people familiar with the investigation.
[...] One frozen head from Science Care [one of the largest body brokers in America] that passed through Dutch airport customs belonged to a 53-year-old who died in April 2017 after treatment to remove a brain tumor. Although the declared value of the head on the customs form was $25, the going rate for a human head in the U.S. market is currently around $500 [...] Even though the hospitals say they plan to stop using the U.S. suppliers, the business of sending body parts through the Netherlands continues.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday December 11 2018, @05:31AM (5 children)
-l?
I was all set up to donate my dead body to a Portland company. But I don't want it sold, I want it to go to a research hospital.
My kidney got donated to a medical school but I want the rest to go specifically for research
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2, Funny) by fustakrakich on Tuesday December 11 2018, @05:59AM
I was all set up to donate my dead body to a Portland company.
Gonna make some cement?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 3, Funny) by mhajicek on Tuesday December 11 2018, @06:20AM
I'd take the arms and legs, but that's all we use to test our products.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Tuesday December 11 2018, @08:07AM (1 child)
I have a similar mindset. But now I want some transparency. If I croak, I'm fine with my body being sold off, but those profits should be distributed according to my will.
I doubt this will be an option so I'm asking the same question as you.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday December 11 2018, @10:04AM
I figure it would help to wear a stainless steel bracelet that says "Whole Body Donation See Wallet" and to carry a card with the instructions in my wallet.
HOWEVER.
I would _still_ need to make arrangements ahead of time.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday December 11 2018, @03:58PM
I was going to donate my body to a University in Canada but they can reject it if it doesn't meet their requirements, thus leaving the family to scramble and find alternative burial/cremation/? options.
I'm leaning towards green burial, aka old traditional burial: wrap me in a shroud and put me in the ground, no toxic embalming fluid, but the closest green burial to me is a ways away.
Hoping something closer to home appears before I decide to kick off: and no, I will NOT be leaving before I am ready...that is my super power.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---