Background The decision to donate a loved one’s body for scientific or medical research is an admirable choice and can offer healing to a grieving family. With whole body donation, bodies and body parts are used for education, research or the advancement of medical, dental or mortuary science. Researchers rely on donated human body parts to develop new surgical instruments, techniques, implants, medicines and treatments for diseases. Surgeons, paramedics and funeral directors use donated bodies and body parts for training, education and research and take great care to respect the tremendous gift of a donor cadaver. While medical schools and state-run anatomy programs do not actively solicit donations, body brokers target the poor and elderly to donate their loved one’s body. Some medical schools have reported that competition from body brokers has reduced the number of bodies donated to schools to train students and conduct research because some brokers can offer donors more favorable terms, such as free removal of the body and cremation. A patchwork of federal and state laws applies to body brokers. Under the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act, most state anatomical gift laws largely regulate just one side of the process — how a body may be donated. Most do not address what happens next, such as how brokers dissect, handle and ship the bodies and body parts; the prices they set on human remains; to whom they sell or resell them; how the parts are used by buyers; or the rights of donors and next-of-kin. In almost every state, it is legal for anyone, even if they do not have training, to sell the human remains of adults. Generally, a broker can sell a donated human body for about $5,000, though prices sometimes top $10,000. Bodies and body parts can be bought, sold and leased again and again. As a result, it can be difficult to track what becomes of donors’ bodies, ensure they are handled with dignity, and returned to their loved ones after cremation. Fewer rules mean fewer consequences when bodies are mistreated, and when donor bodies are mistreated, the impact on surviving family members can be heartbreaking. “We have heard upsetting stories from families that believed they were doing a good thing when they donated a loved one’s body for medical research,” said NFDA CEO Christine Pepper, CAE. “They truly believed the donation would create a positive legacy. However, the shocking actions of body brokers have only caused further grief. We strongly urge Congress to pass the Consensual Donation and Research Integrity Act and provide long-overdue accountability and transparency to the whole-body donation process and ensure donors’ bodies are treated with dignity and respect at all times.” For more information about the Consensual Donation and Research Integrity Act, visit www.nfda.org/bodybrokerbill. NFDA is the world’s leading and largest funeral service association, serving more than 20,000 individual members who represent nearly 11,000 funeral homes in the United States and 49 countries around the world. NFDA is the trusted leader, a beacon for ethics and the strongest advocate for the profession. NFDA is the association of choice because it offers funeral professionals comprehensive educational resources, tools to manage successful businesses, guidance to become pillars in their communities and the expertise to foster future generations of funeral professionals. NFDA is headquartered in Brookfield, WI., and has an office in Washington, D.C. For more information, visit www.nfda.org. Directors Digest | 25
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