Body Shop

“The current state of affairs is a free-for-all. We are seeing similar problems to what we saw with grave-robbers centuries ago. I don’t know if I can state this strongly enough. What they are doing is profiting from the sale of humans.” You’ve undoubtedly heard of options like organ-donation or donating your body to science. But it’s unlikely that you’ve considered the way some largely unregulated body brokers sell (and even rent) human bodies and body parts — and even after death, the poor are more likely to be abused. A special report from Reuters: In the U.S. market for human bodies, almost anyone can dissect and sell the dead.

+ “Her brain never was used for Alzheimer’s research. Instead, Stauffer’s body became part of an Army experiment to measure damage caused by roadside bombs.” How the body of an Arizona great-grandmother ended up as part of a U.S. Army blast test. (After my death, I’ve requested that my body be left in place right behind this laptop. I want to find out who will notice first: My kids or my subscribers.)