Tarrant County in Texas has changed their policy regarding unclaimed bodies, opting to cremate or bury them instead of giving them to a local medical school for research without consent. This decision came after an NBC News investigation revealed that the University of North Texas Health Science Center had been using the remains of unclaimed people for research, causing outrage among family members. The county will now take responsibility for contacting relatives and handling the remains ethically, at an estimated cost of $675,000 a year.
The new policy requires officials to make efforts to contact deceased people’s families before declaring them unclaimed. Only after exhausting all avenues to reach relatives can the bodies be cremated or buried, with cremation being the preferred option. The policy also provides guidelines for situations where burial may be necessary, such as if the deceased had specific religious beliefs or were a military veteran.
The changes were influenced by bioethicist Eli Shupe, who criticized the previous practice of providing unclaimed bodies to the medical school without consent. The policy reflects an evolution in medical ethics that emphasizes treating human specimens with the same dignity as living patients. Some families, like that of Dale Leggett, who had his body provided for research without consent, only learned of what happened through the NBC News investigation. Leggett’s family members were relieved to hear about the new policy and hope it will prevent similar incidents in the future.
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