Former UCLA Willed Body Program employee Ernest Nelson announced
Monday the release of a book detailing his experiences while
working for the university.
The book, titled “Willing Bodies: Inside the UCLA Willed
Body Program,” would accuse the UCLA program of participating
in the sale of body parts, a practice that the university has said
it had no knowledge of at the time, according to Nelson’s Web
site.
Nelson was arrested last year in connection with the sale of
donated body parts but says he has never been charged.
Nelson’s Web site says that he received the body parts and
cut them for sale to Johnson & Johnson and Mitek, two
pharmaceutical companies.
“He feels they are trying to let it die,” said
Nelson’s publicist Deborah Robinson. “They held the
charges to keep it quiet.”
Attempts to reach university police for comment were
unsuccessful.
Robinson said that Nelson is looking to clear his name and move
on. He believes that he had an “honorable profession”
and saw no wrong in selling body parts because of the contribution
to research that his actions allowed for.
“If the university came forward, the public would
understand that (selling body parts to companies) is
important,” Robinson said.
University media relations officials declined to comment on the
grounds of an ongoing criminal investigation and continued
litigation.
The book, which is scheduled to come out April 12, would include
documentation spanning six years, including checks and invoices
from the university that Nelson says will support his claim of
university involvement, Robinson said.
“He hopes that the university will … admit to what they
were doing,” she said. “But he expects the same ““
a denial.”
Nelson’s Web site includes an excerpt from the book that
alleges involvement on the parts of the university and the
companies.
“Did UCLA officials know Ernest Nelson? Did UCLA officials
know what Nelson did twice a week on the University campus? Did
UCLA knowingly sell body parts through Nelson? “˜Yes. Yes.
Yes,'” the Web site reports.
Robinson said that Nelson “feels remorse and sorrow for
the families, but felt that what he was doing was right.”
Mike Arias, a lawyer involved in the civil suit against the two
companies accused of buying the bodies, Johnson & Johnson and
Mitek, said that Nelson has been served papers to show up in court
but has failed to appear.
He went on to say that if the information that appears in
Nelson’s book is accurate, it would “substantiate what
we believe about the involvement of Johnson & Johnson and
Mitek.”
Arias also said they would not wait for the book to come out
before they subpoena the documents that are referenced on
Nelson’s Web site.