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Mortuary in a Spanish hospital (symbolic image)
Photo: D.sinova / AFP
Criminals who are said to have illegally traded corpses have been busted in Spain. They are suspected of forging papers and documents, mainly in the city of Valencia, in order to obtain the bodies of the deceased in hospitals and nursing homes. The police announced this on Monday.
The bodies were then sold to universities for study purposes for 1,200 euros each. Four suspects between the ages of 41 and 74 were arrested, writes the newspaper El País.
"The accused chose deceased people who had no relatives, preferably foreigners, or who lived in precarious conditions," the Policía Nacional said in a statement. A funeral home involved in the case also collected a total of more than 5,000 euros from universities for at least eleven cremations that were never carried out.
The medical faculties of universities rely on corpses because exercises on them are considered indispensable in the training and further education of medical professionals. In Spain, despite body donation agreements, there don't seem to be enough bodies available for this.
more on the subject
Trading in body parts:The lousy business of body brokersBy Annette Langer
There are also so-called body brokers in the USA. The case of two undertakers who dismembered corpses, sold the parts individually to laboratories and praised their actions as a blessing for research caused outrage.
In Germany, body donors must decide of their own free will and during their lifetime that their body will be made available to science or anatomy. Survivors cannot do this. When it comes to donations to teaching hospitals, the supply in this country seems to be greater than the demand.
ala/dpa