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EDITOR’S NOTE, 9/18/2024, 12:46 p.m.: This article has been updated to include comments from Dallas County Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins and Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot.
The University of North Texas is yet again in the news for all the wrong reasons following a shocking investigative report earlier this week, the third less-than-glowing headline for the school in the past couple of weeks.
On Monday, an NBC News exposé revealed that the UNT Health Science Center has for years been selling parts from unclaimed bodies provided by authorities in Dallas and Tarrant counties to other institutions for medical training and even for-profit medical technology development. In many cases, relatives of the deceased were still searching for them.
After first defending its practices as necessary to train new medical professionals, the Health Science Center changed its tune after being presented with NBC’s findings.
“As a result of the information brought to light through your inquiries, it has become clear that failures existed in the management and oversight of The University of North Texas Health Science Center’s Willed Body Program,” the statement provided to NBC said. “The program has fallen short of the standards of respect, care and professionalism that we demand.”
This startling case comes on the heels of a pair of other stories that cast a negative light on the school. Late last week UNT dissolved more than a dozen faculty resource groups under pressure from Senate Bill 17, the new state law that bans public Texas colleges from having dedicated diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs. And just before that, the Observer reported that the school had a “creeper” problem on its campus, thanks to many photos being taken of unsuspecting female students that were posted on a lewd website.
The NBC News report from Mike Hixenbaugh, he of the notable local-centric podcasts Southlake and Grapevine, Jon Schuppe and Susan Carroll, does not aim its scope only at UNT. According to the report, the district attorney offices in Dallas and Tarrant counties failed to cover their bases properly as well by not making greater efforts to identify the dead before giving them to the medical school.
“The county and the medical school are doing this because it saves them money, but that doesn’t make it right,” said Thomas Champney, an anatomy professor at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, in the report. Champney researches the ethical use of human bodies. “Since these individuals did not consent, they should not be used in any form or fashion.”
The UNT Health Science Center for months vigorously defended its use of unclaimed bodies
But after being presented w/ detailed findings of our 10-month investigation, the center announced Friday it was ending the program and firing its leaders
Read why: https://t.co/2IoWUi8E8c
— Mike Hixenbaugh (@Mike_Hixenbaugh) September 16, 2024
According to the report, documents revealed “repeated failures by death investigators in Dallas and Tarrant counties – and by the center – to contact family members who were reachable before declaring a body unclaimed.”
When reached for comment, Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot told the Observer via email that he has no comment on the matter at this time since there “is discussion of possible criminal investigation.”
Dallas County Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins told the Observer that the NBC report has brought about changes in how the county will handle this business moving forward.
“Dallas County contracted with the University of North Texas Health Science Center (UNTHSC) to provide decedent transport and manage the coordination of unclaimed bodies for medical research,” the statement from Jenkins read. “That contract has been suspended and will not be renewed. Effective immediately, Dallas County will only provide unclaimed remains for medical research if the decedent has provided consent in writing before death or the family provides consent in writing after death. The County will be procuring cremation services for all unclaimed bodies from a private provider and will be developing a County operated transport service.”
According to NBC, Dallas County commissioners recently postponed a vote on whether to extend its agreement with the UNT Health Science Center, and Tarrant County has said it will now explore its legal options in regards to its contract.
Some of the companies that have acquired body parts from the Health Science Center have either opted to end the partnership or are now reviewing their agreements based on the report’s findings. NBC also noted that “the Texas Funeral Service Commission, which regulates body donation programs in the state, is conducting a review of its own.”
This practice in Dallas and Tarrant counties did not go completely unnoticed by those in the know. Eli Shupe, a bioethicist at the University of Texas at Arlington, has sought to end the practice of donating unclaimed bodies in Tarrant County for years, according to the report.
Most heartbreakingly, NBC detailed the stories of several individuals whose unclaimed bodies were used in the UNT program. Instead of being given the military burial he deserved, Victor Carl Honey, a veteran of more than 10 years, was “frozen, cut into pieces and leased out across the country.”
Honey’s family didn’t learn of his fate until more than a year after the fact.
“In the case of Victor Honey, it shouldn’t have been hard for Dallas County investigators to find survivors: His son shares his father’s first and last name and lives in the Dallas area,” the report noted. “Family members are outraged that no one from the county or the Health Science Center informed them of Honey’s death, much less sought permission to dissect his body and distribute it for training.”
