TS Radio Network: The Lucrative Body Parts Trade: Mom & Pop Chop Shops

Join Coz & Marti and Reverend Ralph as we welcome the return of Marcai Southwick

Our guest tonight is Marcia Southwick.  Marcia returns to continue her investigation of the trafficking of body parts and whole cadavers. This is big business!

Tonight we'll discuss the lucrative body parts trade. Anyone can set up shop. All it takes is a few freezers and a chainsaw. A Tennessee broker sold a cervical spine and two heads to a Reuters investigator after a few email exchanges. A New Mexico body broker was discovered only after heads with address tags were discovered in a Kansas Medical Waste Facility truck. Authorities found 127 body parts belonging to 45 people in a New Mexico warehouse. One head belonged to Farrah Fashold's father. She hoped that Paul Montanto, owner of New Mexico's BioCare, would be prosecuted, but the Attorney General could not find any state laws prohibiting the sale of body parts. This has proven to be true in many states. As a result, Mom and Pop Chop Shops have grown into far bigger businesses. MediCure sells 10,000 body parts annually to various states and 22 countries. ScienceCare reaps over $27 million in yearly sales by recruiting body donors through clergy, hospices, and online ads. Many unsuspecting families who donate a loved one's body are unaware of the huge profits being made. What is being done to regulate this grisly occupation? Not much. A bill sits in Congress going nowhere.