The New York Times reports that a Moroccan woman who took a piece of her dead husband's intestine on a flight to their home in Austria was carrying the sample because she suspected that he had been poisoned and she wanted European doctors to examine it.
The woman packed the four-inch piece in her checked baggage on a flight to the southern Austrian city of Graz, where she and her husband had been living for eight years. She acted on the advice of a doctor in Marrakesh who shared her suspicion that her husband had been poisoned at a meal the couple ate while visiting his relatives. The woman was travelling through Graz airport in the south of Austria but was reportedly stopped by officials after they observed her behaving suspiciously.
Officers determined that the woman had violated no Austrian laws by bringing the sample into the country. A Moroccan doctor extracted the piece of intestine and apparently helped pack it in formaldehyde and in thick plastic containers. Gerald Höfler, who leads the pathology institute in Graz where the intestine is being examined, described the packaging as very professional. "I would imagine that it was done by a pathologist," Höfler said. "It was absolutely secure, triple wrapped, according to European Union norms."
(Score: 2) by pkrasimirov on Thursday September 29 2016, @09:10PM
RIP husband. I hope he was not poisoned or killed in another way.
(Score: 5, Funny) by pkrasimirov on Thursday September 29 2016, @09:14PM
Prosecutor: How did your first husband die?
Wife: Poisoning.
Prosecutor: Why?
Wife: He ate mushrooms.
Prosecutor: How did your second husband die?
Wife: Poisoning.
Prosecutor: Why?
Wife: He ate mushrooms.
Prosecutor: How did your third husband die?
Wife: Head trauma.
Prosecutor: Why?
Wife: He didn't want to eat mushrooms.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Zinho on Thursday September 29 2016, @09:26PM
Short version is:
* she was doing nothing illegal
* she was following proper procedure for what she was doing
* the customs agents detained her anyways, and
* now we all know about her personal medical tragedy
It seems that there's a war on against the unusual; anything that isn't 100% ordinary is subject to harassment.
I'm glad that nothing worse happened to this poor woman, and I wish that the customs officer had known his business well enough to leave her alone. In a perfect world, this would have never made the news.
"Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin
(Score: 2) by edIII on Thursday September 29 2016, @10:08PM
Not so sure. It was odd to say the least, and the article didn't indicate she had any paperwork to that effect either.
So think of it from the custom officers point of view. Lady behaving strangely and you find pieces of intestine in her luggage. She admits its human, her dead husband's, and she is here to get it tested for poison.
Um, yeah, you call for backup. Just so that there is somebody else there with you as witness for one, and then they summoned a doctor. The doctor thought it was strange because for a full autopsy, and to accurately determine poisoning, you need the whole body.
They still let her go. If anyone are the assholes here it is the writers of that article with the title containing the word entrails. Entrails kinda of implies to me there were more than just sample sizes, and doesn't imply professional packaging. They could have stated medical samples and it would've been far more accurate.
Sounds like the truth is that she spent a little while explaining it, but wasn't handcuffed or anything. I think that's pretty reasonable because ladies traveling around with their husband's intestines are pretty damn rare and weird.
I'm on the inclusiveness and equality bandwagon too, but dude.... a few questions in this case are reasonable. Remember, the owner of those intestines is dead. We want to ask questions about body parts of dead people being transported :)
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 29 2016, @10:31PM
Lesson learned: before carrying anything unusual on an international flight, retain lawyers in both countries.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Thursday September 29 2016, @11:47PM
There's unusual, and then there is human intestines.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 29 2016, @10:31PM
I guess the Moroccan doctor had already come to the conclusion that the lady's husband was poisoned, and provided a sample that would let Austrian doctors get first hand confirmation, rather than having his report translated, authenticated and questioned.
But otherwise, a non-story. How "suspicious" did she act?
(Score: 3, Touché) by bob_super on Thursday September 29 2016, @11:12PM
> but wasn't handcuffed or anything
Well, it is a European country. After a few hundred years of getting it wrong, they realized they should talk to Africans for a while before putting them in chains.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Thursday September 29 2016, @10:20PM
Even if the thing hadn't been properly wrapped...um...would anything have happened? Unless the guy had mad cow disease or something really weird I would think you could just drop the thing in a ziplock bag for all it matters.
(presumably the extra packaging is just to keep it "fresh" and uncontaminated for testing. and also keep your luggage from getting all "zesty" if it leaks during rough handling in transit)
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 29 2016, @10:48PM
a prerequisite for the privilege of flying in airplanes (no, its not a right) is that you act normally and submit yourself to the possibility of inspections and "harrassment"
if she didn't want that there are numerous other (albeit slower and less convenient) means of travel
acting strangely at an airport is going to attract attention... end of story
(Score: 2) by Marand on Thursday September 29 2016, @10:58PM
It seems that there's a war on against the unusual; anything that isn't 100% ordinary is subject to harassment.
We've always been a war with the abnormal.
If someone doesn't follow your idea of what's normal, there's clearly something wrong with them and it should be investigated or reported. Tell the police if someone is acting suspicious, they might be a criminal. Report suspicious behaviour, it might be a terrorist. If someone looks out of place or acts uncomfortable, report it, they might be a communist. Strange activity might be a sign that someone's a witch, better burn them to be sure. This has been going on for ages in some form or another.
No idea if there's any basis for this, but maybe we're just wired to be this way as a species. Unusual behaviour in animals can be a sign of disease, so perhaps we instinctively fear the unusual as a survival mechanism, and these witch-hunts against anything different are a manifestation of that.
(Score: 2) by Dunbal on Friday September 30 2016, @12:41AM
* now we all know about her personal medical tragedy
How is murder a medical tragedy?
(Score: 2) by Zinho on Friday September 30 2016, @03:58AM
How is murder a medical tragedy?
Poisoning and death are both medical conditions.
Death of a loved one, especially under suspicious circumstances, is tragic.
In the U.S. disclosing both the name of the patient and the details of the medical procedure being requested would be illegal; presumably there are medical privacy rules in Austria as well, since the article was very careful to not disclose the woman's identity. I'd say that's personal as well.
I chose the words carefully.
"Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin
(Score: 1) by GDX on Friday September 30 2016, @01:18AM
Actually it appears that she wasn't following all of the proper procedure, well she followed most of it but she didn't filled the proper paperwork to transport/import a medical sample although this paperwork seems that isn't obligatory for all type of samples it helps in situations like this.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 30 2016, @08:04AM
When the paperwork isn't required, how is not having it "not following the proper procdedure"?
Do you even know first hand that such paperwork exists? Because I've heard the exact same argument over and over again, that even though over here, we aren't required to carry any personal ID cards, that it's still recommended to do so, in case you get stopped by the police. That's easy to recommend, but doesn't matter, when we don't have an official id card.
(Score: 1) by GDX on Sunday October 02 2016, @02:14AM
When the paperwork isn't required, how is not having it "not following the proper procedure"?
Well this is a philosophical question, but sometime doing the thing in the proper way is not to do it only fulfilling the minimum requirements.
Do you even know first hand that such paperwork exists?
First hand no but asked a lawyer friend and he confirmed its existence, and the paperwork exist for some type of samples in various European countries, but most of the time for the majority of the samples basically is only a simply customs declaration of the sample and its purpose.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 30 2016, @02:45AM
Its not a war against the unusual. That is too simplistic a view.
Its an authoritarian war on non-conformity and uncontrolled.
Airport security has gone from necessary measures to authoritarian porno film since 911 et al.
And you better stay awake, because this crap will spread everywhere these sorts can spread it if you give them half a chance.
Just ask the germans and the koreans...
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anne Nonymous on Thursday September 29 2016, @09:45PM
That takes a lot of guts.
(Score: 2) by Rivenaleem on Friday September 30 2016, @09:28AM
Imagine trying to smuggle that in a swallowed condom.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 30 2016, @06:09PM
Talk about a double entendre :)
But yo dawg. I heard you liked intestines, so we put intestines inside intestines inside of your intestine. It's intestines all the way down dawg!
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Thursday September 29 2016, @10:36PM
I just thought she just wanted to make some Kishke [wikipedia.org].
I guess not.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 5, Funny) by ilPapa on Thursday September 29 2016, @11:00PM
That's nothing. My first wife still has my balls.
You are still welcome on my lawn.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by black6host on Friday September 30 2016, @05:04AM
There should be a sad mod for this post. I'm so sorry :)