With several institutions, including UCLA, facing problems concerning the illegal trafficking of cadavers, each organization is handling the issue individually since there has been no extensive federal oversight.
Because of the increased demand for body parts and tissue for research and medical purposes, Lisa Ikemoto, a UC Davis law professor specializing in bioethics, said she believes stricter state and federal laws may be put in place in the future.
It is currently illegal in the United States to sell body parts and tissue for profit, but there is no law against charging acquisition and handling fees for body parts.
“This type of issue is usually dealt with on a state-by-state basis, but there are currently no elaborate state laws regarding this problem. The law now requires informed consent by the donor before tissue is used, with some exceptions,” Ikemoto said. “However, state legislators are becoming more aware of this issue. They’re feeling a push.”
The only federal law concerning body parts and tissue donation is the National Organ Transplant Act enacted in 1984, which is meant to facilitate organ donation, Ikemoto said, adding that educational establishments might also begin to place more pressure on state and federal government.
“They want to make sure the tissues they are using are clean of any ethical problems. Research and medical institutions will probably feel safer if there are strict guidelines to follow,” she said.
In recent years, there have been several instances of illegal marketing of body parts in University of California, prompting the system to enact its own methods of oversight.
The former director of UCLA’s Willed Body program, Henry Reid, and his affiliate Ernest Nelson were charged last week for selling body parts from cadavers that had been donated for research. Both pled not guilty Friday.
Soon after the two men were arrested in 2004, the University of California decided to implement a systemwide willed body program, said UC spokeswoman Jennifer Ward. Each campus had previously had a separate program.
In an incident at UCLA in 1996, donors’ relatives unsuccessfully sued the program for illegally disposing of thousands of cadavers, burying some in landfills and mixing others.
In 1999, the director of the willed body program at UC Irvine was fired after he allegedly sold spines taken from cadavers to a research facility.
After the incident, UC Irvine enacted more stringent policies including an inventory management and control system, a review process with vendors to ensure they comply with university procedures, and regular policy review, according to a statement from UC Irvine.
Several years later, after the second UCLA incident, the UC decided to look more closely at the problem. “A committee, headed by (former Gov.) George Deukmejian, discussed the UC system’s problems with the donated body programs and decided what changes the UC could make in the future,” Ward said.
In May 2005, Brandi Schmitt was appointed by the UC Office of the President to oversee the UC system’s willed body program.
“(Schmitt) pulls together all the programs and regulates new policies so there are some checks and balances,” Ward said. Since the inception of the systemwide program, there have been major changes to prevent future occurrences similar to those at UCLA. Stricter security background checks have been implemented to make sure no one working for the willed body program has any criminal record.
“It’s to make sure we hire the right people. It’s not just about good technology, but having people who really care about the program,” Ward said.
Additionally, there are now security cameras monitoring all buildings, and a pilot program has been enacted at UCLA in which anatomical materials are tracked by radio frequency identifiers to verify where items are and who is in charge of them.
“It’s another form of check and balances,” Ward said.
UC officials hope to have the identifiers in place systemwide by the end of the year, she added.
Allen Nissension, the UCLA’s medical school’s associate dean, said in a statement that he believes the new measures will help UCLA’s Willed Body Program avoid problems in the future. “We have implemented a series of comprehensive strategies to enhance security, build in transparency and widen oversight of the program among multiple departments and staff at both UCLA and the UC Office of the President,” he said in the statement.
“We are confident that these measures will ensure that our donors’ generous gifts will be used only to advance scientific research and our students’ education.”