Hundreds of unclaimed bodies were sent to a medical school in Texas

This article is part of “Trading in the Dead”, series examining the use of unclaimed bodies for medical research.

For five years, unclaimed bodies from Dallas and Tarrant counties were delivered to the University of North Texas Health Sciences Center in Fort Worth.

There, bodies were assessed for their suitability for medical science: those that tested positive for infectious diseases or began to decompose were cremated.

The rest – more than 830 of the approximately 2,350 bodies since 2019 – were embalmed or placed in freezers. Some were selected to train future doctors and nurses. Others were cut into pieces and leased to medical schools, the US military and for-profit medical technology companies.

Proponents of using unclaimed bodies for research – which is legal in most of the United States – argue that it makes economic sense, saving local taxpayers thousands of dollars a year in burial costs while ensuring a steady supply of samples needed to advance medicine.

But after an NBC News investigation revealed last month that at least a dozen North Texas families were left in the dark about what happened to their missing relatives, the Health Science Center abruptly stopped using unclaimed bodies and fired officials in charge of its body of the donation program and apologized to the affected families. Since then, nine more people have come forward and told NBC News that their relatives were also placed in the medical program without consent.

Survivors said they were disturbed and devastated to learn that the bodies of their loved ones may have been examined and, in some cases, dissected and rented across the country.

To help families find answers, NBC News is publishing the names of more than 1,800 people whose bodies were donated to the Health Science Center by Dallas and Tarrant counties since 2019. The database is based on spreadsheets of unclaimed bodies obtained through open records. applications from district medical examiners.

The vast majority of these names have not been made public before. Tarrant County does not routinely publish the names of unclaimed persons in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, or NamUS, a free public database designed to connect facts between missing persons reports and unclaimed bodies. Dallas County began entering names into the system in December.

In publishing this list, NBC News only reports the person’s name, gender, race, age at death, the date their body was delivered to the Health Science Center and whether the body was selected for research. Reporters were only able to obtain specific demographic information – including age, race and gender – for a subset of cases. If reporters find evidence that a person’s next of kin gave written consent to have the relative’s body sent to the Health Science Center, NBC News does not publish their names. In some cases in Tarrant County, information about whether the next of kin consented was not available.

NBC News has not been able to independently confirm the accuracy of all information provided by the counties, so it may contain spelling and other errors. The list also does not include the names of dozens of people whose unclaimed bodies were delivered to the Health Science Center by other Texas counties.

If you think you may have found a loved one on the list, more information is available from the Dallas or Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s offices or the UNT Health Sciences Center. The Texas Funeral Service Commission, which regulates body donation in Texas, may also be able to provide information about how the remains will be used.

NBC News continues to report on the use of unclaimed bodies in Texas and across the country. If you would like to share your experience, email reporter Mike Hixenbaugh.