How much is your dead body worth ?
Horizon investigates the rapidly growing industry that supplies human bodies and has seen a cadaver sell for as much as $250,000. Modern medical revolution has fueled a black market trade in stolen body parts which includes, among its victims, the veteran broadcaster Alistair Cooke. When veteran broadcaster Alistair Cooke died in 2004 few suspected that he was yet to uncover his greatest story. What happened to his body as it lay in a funeral home would reveal a story of modern day grave robbery and helped smash a body-snatching ring that had made millions of dollars by chopping up and selling-off over 1000 bodies. Dead bodies have become big business. Each year millions of people's lives are improved by the use of tissue from the dead. Bodies are used to supply spare parts, and for surgeons to practice on. Horizon investigates the medical revolution that has created an almost insatiable demand for body parts and uncovers the growing industry and grisly black market that supplies human bodies for a price. Horizon investigates the medical revolution that has created an almost insatiable demand for body parts. Plastinating brains.Body part values. So just how much are your body parts and organs worth after you die? In Minnesota, the University's anatomy department is hosting their annual donor remembrance service to thank the families of those who gave their bodies to train their students. For Marjorie Moore, the service is doubly poignant. She donated her husband's body and she knows that before long she will become a donor herself. I've been diagnosed with terminal cancer and I've been given a prognosis of approximately two years I want to go on teaching anatomy even after I'm dead. And for others who know about the body trade, the decision to donate is also an easy one. Organ and body donation is a persona choice and so I think that's why I found what Mr Brown did so offensive because he shouldn't be able to take that choice away from people. It's maybe a spiritual thing but I figure where I'm going I don't need it, so I made the choice to donate my organs and my body when I die. Development and the evolution of new surgical instrumentation and new surgical techniques, families can be a part of this. It's something tangible that they can see and yes, I will be donating my body. Oh, I would donate my body in an instant. I believe that donation is a great thing, so I think people should continue to donate and they shouldn't stop donating because there are problems in the system. Hopefully if things change, some of these brokers will disappear and go into other businesses like selling used cars or something like that. It's an equivalent business in my mind.
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| Part 1
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As an anatomy teacher in these same laboratories for 20 years, she knows how important cadavers are in understanding the living body. When you look at a textbook, it's perfect anatomy. That's a 20-year-ol standard male who's healthy and you don't get to see the pathologies, yo don't get to see the range of sizes. They just don't convey the three dimensions that you can see on a cadaver.
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| Part 2
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Just to cover their costs, the Anatomy Gift Registry need to make up to $6,000 from each body. There is some controversy associated with the disarticulating of a body. Is the family aware that so many specimens are going out for so many different applications? In actuality this is the very same promise that we give to the family...
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| Part 3
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and tendons $1,000 each. If every useful bit could be recovered, processed and sold for its maximum value, the proceeds from a single body could be $250,000. With so much money on offer, perhaps it's little wonder that the abuse of bodies is so widespread. Todd Olson is an anatomy professor in New York, who's become concerned about ...
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