Summary
The Los Angeles Times is reporting that an official with UCLA's medical
school has been privately selling cadavers that were willed to the
medical school. The individual -- who was also the director of the
"willed body program" -- made more than $700,000 selling these bodies to
medical research companies. In other words, people who thought they were
donating their bodies to science were apparently enriching the pockets
of a twisted individual who resold the bodies for his own person profit.
As bizarre as this story seems, it's only one report in a sea of
similar stories from the lucrative body parts industry. In a previous
article, I described how other cadavers from people who thought they
were "donating their bodies for science" were actually sold to the
military for -- get this -- testing landmines. I know this all sounds
bizarre, almost tabloid, but in fact, it's right from the the LA Times
and other press sources.
There's a bigger story to all this: as
people graciously donate their bodies, their organs and their blood to a
variety of organizations out of a desire to help fellow human beings,
there's actually a hidden, lucrative underground market flourishing in
the buying and selling of body parts. The donor who gave up their own
body in an act of kindness ends up having their body sent to the medical
equivalent of an auto theft "chop shop" where it is parted out to the
highest bidder. And there's an enormous amount of money generated from
donated organs, too. The hospital removing the organ is paid a fee, the
transportation company that brings the chilled organs to the intended
recipient makes a bundle, and of course the surgeons, doctors and
hospitals actually performing the organ transplant make a small fortune.
In all, one donated organ (such as a human liver) might generate well
over $100,000 in revenues for everyone involved... that is, everyone
except the donor.
The donor gets nothing. They're dead, so they
might not mind, but what about their families? Shouldn't the families of
organ donors receive some portion of the revenues generated from their
loved one's death? Why should doctors, hospitals and organ trading
companies reap a fortune from a person's death while the family
suffering the most gets absolutely nothing in return?
It's the
dirty little secret of the organ donation industry: everybody makes
a bundle, but the original donor gets absolutely nothing. The same is
true when you donate blood: you give your blood for free, then the blood
bank turns around and charges $100 / pint to give it to someone else.
There's something wrong with this picture. Somehow, the blood banks and
organ donor organizations have managed to keep all this secret while
exploiting the national press to urge people to come back and keep
donating. What a great business concept: people come in and give you
product for free, then you turn around the sell it for almost any price
you might ask. That's how some organ donor programs and blood banks
operate. It's a business: and the price list features human flesh.
This is why I strongly urge people to avoid donating blood and to never
participate in organ donor programs, which are usually pushed onto
people at the local DMV. The industry is a racket, and if you donate
your blood, organs or entire body to "science," you actually have no way
to know how it's going to end up being used. Your dead body might be
blasted to bits by the military, or it might be sold by someone on the
black market for who knows what. And if you donate organs, you can rest
in peace knowing that you've generated another hundred thousand dollars
(or more) for a long list of surgeons and hospitals who see your organs
as nothing other than a financial windfall. But what about the whole
idea of "saving lives?" That's the guilt trip played up by the organ
donor industry to keep the product supply flowing. If it were really
about saving lives, as the industry claims, then why don't they give
the organs to the transplant patients for free? Now there's a
question for thought. If it's all about saving the patient, and if they
got the liver for free, then shouldn't they give it to the patient for
free?
Now, I'd be happy to participate in an organ donor program if
I knew that the patient was not going to be charged for the transplant.
I'd be happy to give blood if that blood were, in turn, given freely to
patients who needed it. But I'm not going to give up my blood and body
parts to a corrupt industry that sees my sacred gift as nothing more
than a profit generator. That's downright evil, and I feel that as a
human being, I have an ethical responsibility to make sure I don't
participate in today's organ donation racket.
What do you think
about all this? Do you think the family of the accident victim donating
organs should receive a share of the revenues generated by that organ?
Should blood banks share a portion of the blood revenues with the
donors? Should the whole industry receive a little extra scrutiny from
now on? And does all this change your mind about donating your body to
so-called "science?" These are serious issues. Give them some
consideration... and then go change your driver's license.
Original source:
http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040309-112816-8840r.htm
Details
LOS ANGELES, March 9 (UPI) -- An official with a California medical
school apparently got more than $700,000 for illegally selling cadavers,
the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.
According to invoices viewed by Times reporters, Henry G. Reid of the
University of California-Los Angeles sold 496 cadavers for $704,600 from
1998 to 2003 to a man who then sold them to medical research companies.
Reid, 54, is the director of the willed body program at UCLA's medical
school.
The invoices were shown to the newspaper by a lawyer representing the
man to whom Reid sold the cadavers.
University officials said they had not seen the invoices reviewed by
The Times and suggested they could have been fabricated.
About the author: Mike Adams is a natural health author and award-winning journalist with a strong interest in personal health, the environment and the power of nature to help us all heal He has authored and published thousands of articles, interviews, consumers guides, and books on topics like health and the environment, and he has authored and published several downloadable personal preparedness courses including a downloadable course focused on safety and self defense. Adams is a trusted, independent journalist who receives no money or promotional fees whatsoever to write about other companies' products. In 2010, Adams created TV.NaturalNews.com, a natural living video sharing site featuring thousands of user videos on foods, fitness, green living and more. He also founded an environmentally-friendly online retailer called BetterLifeGoods.com that uses retail profits to help support consumer advocacy programs. He's also the CEO of a highly successful email newsletter software company that develops software used to send permission email campaigns to subscribers. Adams also serves as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a non-profit consumer protection group, and enjoys outdoor activities, nature photography, Pilates and martial arts training. Known on the 'net as 'the Health Ranger,' Adams shares his ethics, mission statements and personal health statistics at www.HealthRanger.org
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Tuesday, April 27, 2004
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