1,800 names released after thousands of unclaimed bodies are sent to Texas medical school

For five years, the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth received unclaimed bodies from Dallas and Tarrant counties. These bodies were assessed for their usefulness to medical science, with some being cremated if they tested positive for infectious diseases or had begun to decompose. The remaining bodies were embalmed or placed in freezers, with some being used to train future medical professionals and others being cut into pieces and leased out to various organizations. This practice of using unclaimed bodies for research has been seen as economically beneficial and necessary for advancing medicine. However, after an investigation revealed that families were not being informed about the use of their missing relatives’ bodies, the Health Science Center stopped using unclaimed bodies, fired officials involved in the body donation program, and apologized to affected families. In response, nine more families came forward to share similar experiences. To help these families find answers, NBC News is publishing a database of over 1,800 people whose bodies were given to the Health Science Center by Dallas and Tarrant counties. This information was obtained through open records requests from the county medical examiners. This development has led to a renewed discussion about the ethics and transparency of using unclaimed bodies for medical research.

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