For five years, the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth received unclaimed bodies from Dallas and Tarrant counties for medical research purposes. Out of the 2,350 bodies received since 2019, around 830 were deemed suitable for research and were either embalmed, placed in freezers, or cut into pieces for use in medical training and research by various organizations. This practice of using unclaimed bodies for research is legal in most of the United States and can save taxpayers money on burial costs while advancing medical science.
However, an NBC News investigation uncovered that at least a dozen North Texas families were not informed about the use of their missing relatives’ bodies for research purposes. Following this revelation, the Health Science Center stopped using unclaimed bodies for research, fired officials involved in the program, and apologized to affected families. Furthermore, nine more families came forward to report that their relatives’ bodies were also used without their consent.
In an effort to provide answers to these families, NBC News published a database listing the names of over 1,800 people whose bodies were donated to the Health Science Center by the two counties. This information was obtained through public records requests from county medical examiners. The controversy surrounding the unauthorized use of these bodies has raised ethical concerns about consent and transparency in the donation process for medical research.
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