Families are unaware leftover body parts of loved ones are sold to biomedical interests.
The nation's 59 agencies that recover vital organs for transplant are increasingly selling the remaining body parts - a business practice that the public knows little about and one that is the focus of federal and state inquiries. An Orange County Register investigation found that 85 percent of the federally designated organ procurement organizations sell skin, bone, heart valves, veins or tendons directly to for-profit biomedical firms or to tissue banks with corporate connections. A majority of these nonprofit organ groups now harvest from more tissue donors than organ donors, according to a Register survey. The donated body parts generate millions of dollars for biomedical corporations, and no organ agencies in America tell donor families about their ties to these companies - a fact that ethicists and families who depend on the system say is shortsighted. It's like they're cutting my kid up for money.