What really happens when bodies are donated to science?

May 19, 2015

Tom Hayes' body was donated to science, but his family later realized his remains could be cut up and distributed

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What really happens when bodies are donated to science?

In 2013, Tom Hayes' body was donated to a for-profit body donation service. “I just assumed that they were going to do what they were supposed to do – take the body, donate it to a school and just be the go-between of people learning from his body,” said his wife, Linda Hayes, who thought his body would stay whole before being cremated and returned to her. Instead, his body – and many others – may have been dissected and distributed multiple places. The company later came under scrutiny by the FBI as part of a fraud investigation. Linda Hayes got a box of ashes back, but she's not sure they belong to her husband. In this excerpt from America Tonight, Lori Jane Gliha reports on the unregulated – and sometimes lucrative – trade in human body parts not intended for transplant.


 

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