It's Not Beyond the Realm of Possibilities...

I'm still working feverishly on my paper. It seems to be sooo involved.

*sigh*

I'm tired and need to get to bed but as chance would have it, during my research, I came across this op-ed (opinion-editorial).

I hung onto the link so that I could share it with you guys.

Do you remember my post about the multi-million dollar underground ring that had been busted for chopping up dead bodies and selling body parts?

Well, some of the 'stolen parts' came from the body of the late PBS host Alistair Cooke.

His daughter, Susan Cooke Kittredge, has been dealing with the emotions that she has experienced since she was told that her father's body had been sold in bits and pieces.

Her article, "Black Shrouds and Black Markets", is very good.

Thanks to advances in technology, the tissue-processing industry has expanded to make use not only of donated organs but also of muscle, bone, tendons and skin for research and transplant. But now prosecutors say that some people who desperately needed help were given diseased tissue and body parts. Already there are patients who say they have contracted syphilis and hepatitis from these transplants. Imagine for just a second, if you can bear it, being told by your doctor — as thousands of patients have been — that in retrospect they aren't exactly sure where the tissue they put in you came from. How could you run away from yourself fast enough?



Her father died of cancer which had progressed into the bone. His leg bones had been taken and sold.



Maybe that's why the tissue transplant industry is so poorly regulated. The criminals in my father's case were apparently able to pull off multiple frauds. They forged his death certificate, medical history and family consent forms. A simple phone call to his next of kin would have revealed that these documents were false, but at no point in the chain did anyone audit them. Although it is illegal to buy and sell tissue, those involved may have managed this by exploiting a loophole that allows harvesters to charge an unspecified processing fee. And although the Food and Drug Administration forbids the transplant of tissue contaminated with malignant cancer, the tissue bank in question may not have run the mandatory tests.


It would be very naive of us to believe that this isn't happening elsewhere.

Could body-snatching and the selling of body parts be going on here in Oklahoma?

People have stooped to doing a lot "lower things" for a lot less money.

I would be surprised if we have escaped just such corruption within the biological industry as well.

How could we figure out if something like this was going on here in our state?

later...


dogscatskidslife: Dr. Frankenstein is... ALIVE!