Tarrant County ends partnership that used unclaimed bodies for medical research
Tarrant County commissioners voted to end a contract with the University of North Texas Health Science Center “as fast as humanly possible” after NBC News reported that the Fort Worth graduate school had used hundreds of unclaimed bodies for research and sale around the country.
“We’re directing the county administrator to wrap up the program with UNTHSC as fast as humanly possible,” said County Judge Tim O’Hare. “No one’s body should be used for medical research absent their pre-death consent or the consent of a loved one, and certainly no one’s body should be sold for profit absent consent.”
The Health Science Center, which includes a medical school and other graduate programs, entered into a contract with Tarrant County in 2018 to handle the bodies of county residents for whom no next-of-kind could be located, as well as for families who could not afford to bury or cremate their loved one. According to the agreement, the Health Science Center would use some of the bodies to educate its medical students. For bodies that could not be used for research or education, the center would charge the county a $300 fee per body for cremation.
Although critics have previously questioned the ethics of using a person’s body without their consent or their loved one’s consent, a investigation published Monday by NBC News pushed UNTHSC to halt the program that used unclaimed bodies, fire program leadership, and hire an external company to review the program’s practices, according to a statement from HSC.
Although HSC had already halted the program as of Friday, county commissioners took a vote Tuesday to formally end the contract.
A spokesperson for HSC said he had no additional details to share when asked how HSC will source cadavers for medical education.
The county’s contract with UNT HSC had been re-approved annually by commissioners before Tuesday’s vote.
Before its contract with HSC, Tarrant County paid for either cremation or burial for deceased county residents whose families couldn’t afford a burial or cremation and for residents with no known next-of-kin. HSC offered to effectively take over Tarrant County’s program for poor and unclaimed bodies. In 2018, Claudia Yellot, then the director of HSC’s Willed Body Program, told county officials that a partnership with HSC would allow the county to save money on burial and cremation costs while also providing essential education to medical students and researchers.
Most recently, commissioners voted 4-1 to continue the partnership in January. At the time, representatives from the Health Science Center said that the program had received about 200 unclaimed bodies per year from the county, about one-third of which could be used for research and education. In 2023, the Health Science Center used 73 unclaimed bodies for research and education, said Rustin Reeves, the then-director of HSC’s Center for Anatomical Sciences told commissioners.
The NBC News report revealed that HSC was also selling some body parts to research companies across the U.S. Reporters identified at least 12 people who had died and whose bodies were used by HSC without their families’ knowledge or consent. In addition, 10 companies interviewed by NBC News said they were unaware that the bodies they had purchased from HSC were not willingly donated.
