Using unclaimed bodies for research is legal in Texas, as it is in most of the country. But many body donation programs have stopped the practice to reflect advances in medical ethics that call for anatomists to treat human remains with the same dignity shown to living patients.
Parker’s bills would make Texas one of a handful of states, including Hawaii, Minnesota and Vermont, that prohibit research or training on unclaimed bodies without consent. That restriction did not draw opposition at the hearing, but some body brokers raised concerns that Parker’s other proposed regulations could stifle crucial training for doctors and potentially lifesaving medical research.
The committee heard from two people featured in the NBC News investigation: Kimberly Patman, whose ex-husband, Victor Honey, a homeless Army veteran, was cut up and leased out to medical companies and the Army; and Tim Leggett, whose older brother, Dale’s, body was shipped to Kentucky to train anesthesiologists. Both learned from reporters what had happened to their loved ones.
“Victor deserved better. His children deserved better. His country owed him better,” Patman said. “We’re asking for accountability and, more importantly, change, so that no other family has to experience this kind of violation and grief.”
Leggett, who learned of his brother’s death through a list of names of unclaimed bodies NBC News published, said he thought every day about how Dale’s body was treated. “When does a human being stop being a human deserving of simple kindness and respect?” he said.
The committee’s chairperson, Lois Kolkhorst, a Republican, appeared aghast.
“These are horrifying stories, and I don’t know where we get to this point in society,” said Kolkhorst, who is a co-author of one of the bills. “It is a darkness here. Your descriptions. Unthinkable.”
Parker added: “It is a darkness, and it’s absolutely horrific. It’s like a horror film.”
The NBC News investigation, published last year, detailed how the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth obtained unclaimed bodies from Dallas and Tarrant counties, then dissected and leased them out. The bodies included those of military veterans, the homeless, people with mental illness and a murder victim. Reporters identified at least 26 people whose bodies were sent to the Health Science Center without their relatives’ knowledge. Twelve of those people’s families learned details of what happened to their loved ones from NBC News, including from a list of names it published.
The investigation prompted the Health Science Center to suspend its body donation program, fire the officials who led it and stop taking unclaimed bodies. Medical technology companies that had received unclaimed bodies from the center said they would change their policies or reconsider their work with the center. Local, state and federal officials expressed alarm and vowed to push for policy changes. The Texas Funeral Service Commission, which regulates body donation, launched an investigation.