Body Broker Bill
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Body Broker Bill

Current Legislation
Home Advocacy Current Legislation Body Broker Bill

Protect the Dignity of Those Who Donate Their Bodies for Medical Research and Give Peace of Mind to Families

When a family chooses to donate a loved one’s body for education or research, they do so with the hope that they will help others. Regrettably, many are unknowingly contributing to a for-profit industry in which the body of their loved one could be traded as raw material in a largely unregulated national market. When the 118th Congress introduces the Consensual Donation and Research Integrity Act (CDRI Act), which has the full support of NFDA, it wil be taking a significant step toward protecting the dignity of donors and offering peace of mind to families.

Impact on Families

A broker in Detroit sold and rented body parts infected with HIV and hepatitis … another sold body parts for use in U.S. Army blast experiments … another left bodies and body parts to decompose due to improper storage … another dissected donor bodies with a chainsaw. These are just a few of the stories detailed in an article published by Reuters, detailing the devastating impact of body brokers.

Hear about the impact of body brokers from donor families in these news stories:

The Story of the Saunders Family

  • Live Autopsy of COVID Victim Allegedly Took Place Without Family's Consent (Newsweek)
  • Family of Man Dissected at Autopsy Event Says They Didn’t Give Consent (KING-TV (Seattle)
  • COVID-19 Victim Reportedly Dissected At Ticketed Event Without Family's Consent (Huffington Post)
  • Outrage as Live Autopsy is Carried Out on WW2 Veteran (The Daily Mail)

WXYZ-TV Detroit

Sunset Mesa - Colorado

  • Sunset Mesa - Criminal podcast
  • Exclusive: fbi raids colorado body broker following reuters report
  • Montrose funeral home owner who allegedly sold hundreds of bodies without families’ consent is federally indicted
  • Date set for trial in case of funeral home selling body parts
  • Second plea in u.s. funeral home scheme to sell body parts
  • Koch's sentence date continued in fraud case centered on sale of bodies
  • Families demand accountability in sunset mesa body-scheme case as koch pleads to mail fraud
  • Former colorado funeral home owner sentenced to 20 yrs for selling body parts
  • 'Somebody murdered my dead husband': victims of colo. funeral home that doubled as body broker begin to heal

WBBM-TV Chicago

KING-TV

Former Seattle 'Body Broker' Convicted for Dumping Bodies in Arizona

WPMT-TV

Cumberland County Man Accused of Illegally Purchasing Human Remains for Resale on Facebook

Reuters Expose on Body Brokers

The Body Trade: Cashing in on the Donated Dead

Other Media Coverage

  • My Loved One Donated Their Body To Science. This Is What It Meant For My Grief. (Huffington Post)
  • Ex-mortuary Worker Indicted for Selling Stolen Body Parts for $11k to a Man She Met on Facebook (New York Post)

The Solution

The solution to the heartbreak experienced by too many families is the Consensual Donation & Research Integrity Act, which will protect the dignity of donors and give families peace of mind by creating standards for registration; inspection; chain of custody; labeling and packaging; and proper disposition. NFDA hopes to see the 118th Congress will introduce this bill soon. 

Learn more about the solution contained in the Consensual Donation & Research Integrity Act, the devastation caused by body brokers and the difference between donation for transplantation and whole-body donation.

Download the Guide to the CDRI Act

NFDA strongly urges the Senate and House of Representatives to introduce and pass the Consensual Donation & Research Integrity Act and provide long-overdue accountability and transparency to the whole-body donation process and ensure donors’ bodies are treated with dignity and respect at all times. The families of donors deserve peace of mind, knowing their loved one’s body will make a difference.

Have Questions?

If you have questions about the CDRI Act, please contact NFDA Senior Vice President, Advocacy, Lesley Witter at lwitter@nfda.org. 

News Coverage & Bill Status

  • Murphy, Tillis Introduce the Consensual Donation and Research Integrity Act (Sen. Chris Murphy News Release - September 22, 2022)
  • Body Broker Bill Introduced in the Senate (NFDA News Release, September 23, 2022)
  • Body Broker Bill Introduced in Congress (NFDA news release, June 23, 2021)
  • Proposed Federal Legislation Would Impose Regulations To Prevent Black-Market Brokering Of Donated Body Parts (WBBM-TV, Chicago, June 22, 2021)
  • Advocacy Awareness: Guarding Their Dignity (The Director, November 2021 - NFDA members only; login required)

Listen

Listen to an episode of the NFDA podcast, A Brush With Death, from July 2021 to learn more about body brokers and the CDRI Act. 

“It’s hard to imagine, in this day and age, that whole body donation isn’t regulated. What’s even harder to hear are the stories from families that have experienced heartbreak and grief when they discovered the bodies of their loved ones has been desecrated and sold – sometimes repeatedly – by body brokers. NFDA and its members strongly urge the Senate and House to pass the CDRI Act and provide long-overdue accountability and transparency to the whole-body donation process. This will help ensure donors’ bodies are treated with dignity and respect at all times.”

2021-22 NFDA President Randall P. “Randy” Anderson, CFSP, CCO.
Alexander City, AL

The heinous acts committed by body brokers have deeply impacted the families I serve in my home state of Arizona. The anguish body brokers have caused must be stopped. I am proud that NFDA is taking on this important issue and ask my fellow members to join me in fighting for the dignity of those we serve. NFDA will be giving us the tools we need to reach out and lobby our members of Congress. With your help, we can get the CDRI Act passed.

NFDA member Hillary Adair
Williams, Arizona

Current Legislation
  • Body Broker Bill

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