Nursing student Serena Karim urged Tarrant County commissioners Tuesday to terminate an agreement to send unclaimed bodies to the University of North Texas Health Science Center. Shelby Tauber for NBC News
In the last years of his life, Victor Honey was homeless on the streets of Dallas. When a destructive winter storm hit in 2021, he took shelter at the city convention center.Cooper Neill(NBC)
Michael Dewayne Coleman and his fiancée, Louisa Harvey. Courtesy Louisa Harvey(NBC)
Nursing student Serena Karim urged Tarrant County commissioners Tuesday to terminate an agreement to send unclaimed bodies to the University of North Texas Health Science Center. Shelby Tauber for NBC News
FITFUL UNREST
Through the Willed Body Program, the University of North Texas (UNT) made a profit of $2.3 million from the sale of over 2,350 bodies in just two years, some marketed with the tagline, “The highest quality found anywhere in the U.S.” Due process to connect these bodies with their families was not properly conducted. In the case of Sgt. Victor Carl Honey, his death was not communicated to his family until a year after his death. By this time his body had been dismembered and sold. The U.S. Army unknowingly purchased his skull for $210.
Following research by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), it was found that between 2017 and 2021, six out of fourteen medical schools in a sample (42.9%) engaged in the direct procurement and use of unclaimed bodies (two schools, 14.3%) or received transferred cadavers from institutions that did (four schools, 28.6%). Cadavers are often treated as a medical student’s first patient, making the ethical sourcing of these bodies critical to the development of a doctor’s professional values and interactions with future patients.
There is a history of distrust in medicine that has been fueled by the exploitation of marginalized communities and the long-lasting mishandling of human remains. The fear of Resurrectionists is still alive. Cases like the UNT Willed Body Program scandal only deepen these concerns. The lack of due diligence in identifying and notifying families about the fate of their loved ones raises serious ethical and legal questions about body donation programs.
Sources;
Gilbert, Susan. “Say Their Names: Unclaimed Bodies and Untrustworthiness in Medical Science.” The Hastings Center, 6 Nov. 2024, www.thehastingscenter.org/say-their-names-unclaimed-bodies-and-untrustworthiness-in-medical-science/
Hixenbaugh, Mike, et al. “As Families Searched, a Texas Medical School Cut up Their Loved Ones.” NBCNews.Com, NBCUniversal News Group, 9 Dec. 2024, www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/university-north-texas-corpses-dissected-unclaimed-bodies-rcna170478
“Issue Brief: Unclaimed Bodies in Medical Education.” American Medical Association, www.ama-assn.org/system/files/issue-brief-unclaimed-bodies-medical-education.pdf. Accessed 23 Mar. 2025.
Shupe E, Karim S, Sledge D. Unclaimed Bodies and Medical Education in Texas. JAMA. 2023;330(12):1189–1190. doi:10.1001/jama.2023.15132