| One of the most bizarre cases to hit the | | | | |
| headlines recently has been about body | | | | On October 26, 2005, Centers for Disease |
| snatching. Science fiction, this is not. | | | | Control and Prevention (CDC) and Food and |
| Unbelievably horrible, it is. | | | | Drug Administration (FDA) recommended that |
| | | | recipients of tissues recovered by Biomedical |
| Dealing with death, funerals, and cremation | | | | Tissue Services (BTS) be tested for evidence |
| can be emotionally gut-wrenching enough but | | | | of infection with HIV, hepatitis B virus |
| what happens when after you thought your | | | | (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and syphilis. |
| loved one was laid to rest, the district | | | | On August 30, 2006, CDC and FDA made the same |
| attorney calls to inform you otherwise. | | | | recommendation for testing of recipients of |
| | | | tissues recovered by Donor Referral Services |
| This painful scenario is exactly what | | | | or Raleigh, N.C. |
| happened to hundreds of New York, New Jersey, | | | | |
| and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania families who | | | | Patients who have implants must rely on the |
| learned that their dead loved ones were | | | | hospital or doctor to be notified of where |
| secretly carved up and robbed of skin, teeth, | | | | the implant came from. |
| and cadaver bones before burial or cremation. | | | | |
| | | | Because of this ghoulish debacle, the Safe |
| Biomedical Tissue Services, a now-defunct | | | | Tissue Act was signed into law in April 2006. |
| human tissue bank located in Fort Lee, New | | | | The FDA will have tighter restraints on |
| Jersey, collaborated with crematoriums and | | | | tissue recovery companies with inspections |
| funeral homes in the Pennsylvania, New | | | | not less than once every two years. The FDA |
| Jersey, New York tri-state area, paying them | | | | will conduct periodic audits ensuring that |
| princely sums of money in order to blindly | | | | tissue products are obtained legally; that |
| look the other way while illegally dissecting | | | | donor eligibility and medical history is |
| human skin and tissue, teeth, and cadaver | | | | based on accurate information; and that |
| bones. Funeral Homes like Louis Garzone | | | | companies are employing good tissue removal |
| Funeral Home, Philadelphia, Daniel George & | | | | and storage practices. The FDA is also |
| Son, Brooklyn, English Brothers Funeral Home, | | | | advising on a model consent form for |
| Brooklyn, New York Mortuary Service Inc., | | | | acquiring tissue. |
| Thomas E. Burger Funeral Home in Hilton, New | | | | |
| York, Profetta Funeral Chapel, which has | | | | A number of law firms have been filing |
| sites in Webster and Irondequoit, and | | | | lawsuits against the funeral homes and tissue |
| Serenity Hills Funeral Chapel, Rochester are | | | | companies on behalf of family members whose |
| alleged to be part of the BTS problem. | | | | loved ones' body parts were illegally stolen |
| | | | and sold for profit. Those in the class |
| Stolen cadaver bones are an unethical | | | | action lawsuit received tainted bone and |
| practice driven by financial greed. | | | | dental implants. Although these tainted |
| Researchers' need for stolen body parts runs | | | | implants have not yet manifested any |
| high. A cadaver and its parts could be worth | | | | diseases, they were improperly obtained from |
| as much as $200,000 depending on the age of | | | | old, diseased, infectious, and perhaps the |
| the body. Dealing with stolen body parts is a | | | | terminally ill. Time will tell what lies |
| new kind of human trafficking especially for | | | | ahead as far as their physical and medical |
| children, teens, and young adults who | | | | ramifications. |
| disappear and whose bodies are never found. | | | | |