Body Broker Book Report

What inspired the journalist/author to research this subject? The author was inspired to research this subject due to the death of college friend who committed suicide. The author thought by researching and writing about deaths he would find closure. She knew the dead could help when it came to research and to teach those in medical school. But she wanted to learn more about where these corpses came from and who they were.

How did Michael Brown start in the illegal body broker business and what ultimately happened to him? Michael Brown was the owner of a crematorium in California. Brown started in the illegal body broker business to earn more money for the new crematorium he wanted to build across the street from his current location. IMET

How did Allen Tyler become a successful broker? The job of a body broker is to facilitate the sell. The book mentioned most dieners become brokers. Chapter 3 explained Perna (body broker) contracted to provide a kind of deluxe corpse service, transport the parts, set them up, keep them fresh, and then haul them away once done. The suppliers of these bodies are morgues, medical schools, tissue banks, independent companies, funeral homes and crematoriums. Allen Tyler was a part-time consultant with IMET. His other job was a diener (a worker who handles, moves and cleans the corpses) with the University of Texas Medical branch; he oversaw the body program. This gave him easy access to the bodies; also his knowledge on how to handle the bodies gave him an edge above anyone else. Tyler knew how to dismember a body in a precise

Discuss what happened in the case of donor 58600. In the case of 58600 he was to be donated to the Bart Wheatley of Intermountain Donor services for a tissue transplant. But because his body was decaying his tissue was sold to CryoLife for $10,500. His knee ended up in Minnesota to be used in a procedure where the doctor would use tissue from a dead body to repair the knee of Brian Lykins. The doctor advised Brian that the tissue being used was disease free but was the tissue of donor 58600 who after death Clostridium sordelli bacteria took over his body. Brian Lykins died soon after the surgery. Brian was not the only person who received tissue from donor 58600; others also got sick or died. Some concerns related are that there is no way to regulate human remains without someone trying to make a profit. It started off as a way to advance science and help society but the greed of money took over. So because there is no regulations or policies people will do what they must to make a profit. Like in the example above knowing the donor had a disease but selling the tissue anyway. There are now regulations for tissue donations but not for the human remains business as a whole. Once regulations are put in place they need to be enforced and organizations need to be audited to make sure they are within compliance. Another concern is conflict of interest; if you are a funeral