UCLA officials could not elaborate Thursday on what will happen
to potential donors while the university’s troubled Willed
Body Program is suspended, but said UC Irvine was not accepting any
bodies on UCLA’s behalf.
The director of UCLA’s Willed Body Program was arrested
Saturday on allegations of selling body parts for profit, and a
March 9 court order prevents UCLA from accepting any more donated
bodies.
According to a Los Angeles Times article published Wednesday, UC
Irvine accepted at least one cadaver originally headed to
UCLA’s Willed Body Program.
“The only services we’re providing is a safe place
for the bodies to be taken and held in storage until the use can be
determined,” Michael Godsey, director of UCI’s program,
told the Times.
In the past, UC Irvine has faced accusations similar to those at
UCLA, and the director of UCI’s program was fired in 1999 for
selling donated body parts.
An automated UCLA message tells people they can call programs at
several universities ““ including UCI, USC and Stanford
University ““ to donate their bodies.
Some people place high importance on donating their bodies to
science after death, and changes to their final plans can cause
complications for their families, said Raymond Boucher, co-council
on behalf of two individuals who filed suit against UCLA earlier
this week.
Other universities whose willed body programs have been
suspended over misconduct in the past have found alternatives to
having their own programs.
The Willed Body Program at the University of Texas Medical
Branch at Galveston had similar problems to UCLA’s, and was
suspended in the summer of 2002.
Before its suspension, the program received 300 donations each
year. Now, it gets cadavers from other schools.
“It’s been better for us to outsource,” said
Jerry Daniels, assistant dean of medicine at UTMB.
Potential donors who want to donate to the Texas medical school
are referred to several medical institutions in Texas that have
Willed Body Programs, Daniels said.
“(People wanting to donate their bodies) didn’t feel
betrayed … as long as we could help them identify someplace that
could help them fulfill their wish,” he said.