Body Donor Family Members v Tulane University Willed Body Program and LSU-Shreveport Willed Body Program

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Willed Body Programs at Tulane and LSU-Shreveport under Investigation for Alleged Mistreatment of Human Remains

Kahn Gauthier Swick and the Dugan Law Firm are investigating claims that the Tulane University Willed Body Program, and possibly the Willed Body Program at LSU-Shreveport, has allowed human remains under its care to be treated disrespectfully, and in a manner that would horrify the casual onlooker. If you have a loved one whose body was donated to Tulane, please contact Kahn Gauthier for more information.

It has been widely reported that Tulane University has suspended its dealings with a national distributor of donated bodies after finding out seven cadavers were sold to the U.S. Army and blown up to test protective footwear against land mines. The bodies, initially donated to Tulane's medical school, were allegedly given to New York-based National Anatomical Service, which then sold them to the Army more than a year ago for between $25,000 and $30,000, according to the Army's Medical Research and Materiel Command in Fort Detrick, Maryland. The bodies were then blown up in land mine experiments at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio.

The market in bodies and body parts is under scrutiny after two men, including the head of the Willed Body Program at the University of California at Los Angeles, were arrested for trafficking in stolen body parts.
For years, military researchers have bought cadavers on this market to use in research involving explosive devices. In the past five years, the Army has used corpses to determine safe standoff distances from explosives, in tests to determine how to build the best shelters, and to improve helmets.

”Imagine if your mother had said all her life that she wanted her body to be used for science, and then her body was used to test land mines. I think that is disturbing, and I think there are some moral problems with deception here," said Michael Meyer, a philosophy professor at Santa Clara University in California who has written about the ethics of donated bodies.

Market activity in bodies appears high because medical schools apparently have a surplus of cadavers.
Tulane receives up to 150 cadavers a year but only needs between 40 and 45 for its classes, according to school insiders. Tulane is still accepting cadavers, and that means drawing up a new, ethically sound contract with NAS is urgent.

With few exceptions, Louisiana law seems to prohibit not only selling medical cadavers, but also transporting them out of the state. Louisiana Revised Statute 17:2280 states: "Whoever sells or buys bodies of deceased persons or parts thereof . . . or transmits or causes to be transmitted such bodies or parts thereof to any place outside the state" shall be fined up to $200 or imprisoned up to one year, or both. The law grants exceptions for remains that are transported to medical conferences for use by doctors or dentists licensed to practice in Louisiana, or by anatomy teachers or researchers employed by Louisiana medical schools.

Tulane wasn't the only university that supplied cadavers for the Army tests, according to the Army. Louisiana State University-Shreveport also provided some bodies.

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