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 ---
(Score: 4, Funny) by aristarchus on Tuesday December 11 2018, @05:39AM (7 children)
Psst! Runaway! Your severed head is worth $500! What's stopping you from cashing in on this bonanza? Obviously, you are not using it now! But seriously, I recommend the movie "Pretty Dirty Things", (2002) [imdb.com], starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, for an insight into the European black market on body parts. This is why we do not allow an actual market in this, or khallow would have sold his spleen years ago, and would not be able to vent it here on SoylentNews.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday December 11 2018, @05:46AM
When it does come time for my cadaver to go to research, I'll suggest it be used for the respiratory variety.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 5, Interesting) by edIII on Tuesday December 11 2018, @06:01AM (5 children)
Nah. Trump's head would be worth at least a few thousand, assuming he would donate his body, just for the neurological study of narcissistic sociopaths of that magnitude.
Likewise, I suspect the market to adjust for Runaway's comment history. I suspect many, many, many, many, many, many, different psych studies to commit to a blind auction.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 11 2018, @06:06AM (2 children)
Ive never read a comment quite like this one. Thanks.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 11 2018, @06:12AM (1 child)
A whole head, of dark matter! Or at least, the absence of brains! How did he function? Oh, wait. . .
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 11 2018, @06:19AM
Doctors have discovered that government bureaucrats and mathematics students may lack a brain.
https://www.iflscience.com/brain/man-tiny-brain-lived-normal-life/ [iflscience.com]
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/remarkable-story-of-maths-genius-who-had-almost-no-brain-1.1026845 [irishtimes.com]
(Score: 2) by fritsd on Tuesday December 11 2018, @05:09PM
Dangerous to obtain, though.. they'd have to sneak up to the White House fence at night, and pry it loose from its "pride of place" ironwork spike without any of the revellers and tourists complaining ;-)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 11 2018, @06:07PM
You're gonna need a bigger lab.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 11 2018, @05:56AM (2 children)
I want Nixon's... Got my own jar
(Score: 2) by stretch611 on Tuesday December 11 2018, @11:20AM
I feel so ashamed...
I read the story the other day and later thought it was interesting enough for this site to submit it.
I completely ignored all Futurama [fandom.com] references [fandom.com] until I saw your comment.
How could I have missed the obvious... :(
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday December 11 2018, @04:09PM
I want JFK's, but good luck there...Johnson probably ate it.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 11 2018, @11:54AM
After they stop importing human body parts, are they going to start importing whole live humans instead?