Body Brokerage: Inside the Trafficking of Human Materials Michelle Prizzi [email protected]
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Locus: The Seton Hall Journal of Undergraduate Research Volume 2 Article 5 September 2019 Body Brokerage: Inside the Trafficking of Human Materials Michelle Prizzi [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.shu.edu/locus Recommended Citation Prizzi, Michelle (2019) "Body Brokerage: Inside the Trafficking of Human Materials," Locus: The Seton Hall Journal of Undergraduate Research: Vol. 2 , Article 5. Available at: https://scholarship.shu.edu/locus/vol2/iss1/5 Prizzi: Body Brokerage Body Brokerage: Inside the Trafficking of Human Materials Michelle Prizzi Seton Hall University Abstract Before we can begin to investigate red mar- In 2011 Scott Carney, anthropologist and in- kets in the present, it is important to understand vestigative journalist, introduced the public to the their centuries old origins of body snatching and horrifying underworld of the Red Market, the il- grave robbing. Contrary to popular assumptions, legal trade of human materials. Carney’s book the first humans to rob graves to obtain bodies The Red Market: On the Trail of the World’s Or- not for wealth were most likely artists. According gan Brokers, Bone Thieves, Blood Farmers, and to Suzanne Shultz, the documentation of this age Child Traffickers (2011) deduces through ethno- old tradition dates back to Antonio Pollaiuolo who graphic experiences that “[r]ed markets are the is often credited for the first anatomical human product of contradictions, aris[ing] when social painting in the 15th century (2005: 1). Later, other taboos surrounding the human body collide with artists would be better known as art anatomists the individual urge to live a long, happy life” including Michelangelo Buonarroti and Leonardo (5). The web behind this twisted niche of the da Vinci (1). Art and medicine have been closely black market is expansive and has a hold in many linked by common curiosity motivated by the goal countries worldwide including the United States, to produce medical texts (2). As medicine ad- China, and India. A closer analytical look at these vanced, there came an increasing need for cadav- countries and the type of illegal trade that occurs ers for dissection. According to Aaron A. Tward within them sheds light on how the Red Market and Hugh Patterson (2002), the first case of human thrives, unregulated and unmonitored by both na- dissection recorded in the United States was in tional and international organizations. Fueled by 1638. However, Tward and Patterson note that the human resilience and the desire to live, the red increasing demand for human specimens does not market is run by body brokers who prey on minor- occur until 1745 when the first course in human ity populations, profiting on exploitation, human anatomy was taught at the University of Pennsyl- rights violations, and our basic need for survival. vania (2002). Until this point, American physi- This paper explores the existing literature on cul- cians sought out their education in Europe, many tural ideologies of the body, scholarly studies on graduating from Edinburgh while others attended the role of corruption in government and health- less well known medical schools in Germany and care institutions, and the areas where a general France (Shultz 2005: 5). Soon after, the United lack of regulations have allowed the intricacies of States was at the forefront of the medical world the red market forge and flourish without opposi- and medical schools started popping up across the tion. country. Anatomy and dissection were viewed Published by eRepository @ Seton Hall, 2019 1 Locus: The Seton Hall Journal of Undergraduate Research, Vol. 2, Iss. 1 [2019], Art. 5 in the United States and abroad as the founda- taining human material as unavoidable but neces- tion “of a sound medical education” (6). From sary evils. While grave robbing may seem like a an ethical point of view, using bodies for dissec- thing of the past, body snatching is still a press- tion was a new revolutionary idea and it was im- ing issue within the United States. Investigative portant to regulate what corpses were used and journalist, Emily Waltz, dove into the world sur- where they came from. Legally, cadavers could rounding body snatching and tissue trade. In her only come from executed criminals but these ca- article, Waltz uncovers the story of 95 year-old davers were not enough to satisfy the increasing Alistor Cooke whose family decided on crema- demand (Tward and Patterson 2002). Many of the tion after his passing (2006). Cooke had passed cadavers used for dissection were likely obtained away in 2004 of lung cancer in New York and through the illegal means of grave robbing both in 2005 his family discovered that his body had by anatomy instructors and their students (Tward been snatched and parts of it sold (Waltz 2006). and Patterson 2002). The first federal law passed Cooke was one of 1,000 bodies stolen by a New in the United States related to the ethics of cadav- Jersey funeral home turned body brokerage com- ers was not passed until 1790 which gave federal pany where medical records were falsified, body judges the right to add dissection to the sentence parts were stolen, and then sold for millions of of death for murder” (Tward and Patterson 2002). dollars (Waltz 2006). What allows this area of This sentencing had a twofold purpose: to provide the red market to flourish boils down to simple cadavers but also to deter murders because dissec- economics, supply and demand. Human cadav- tion was negatively viewed by the public. As the ers, whether it be the full skeleton or tissue sam- nineteenth century drew near, the demand for ca- ples, are required for education, transplantation, davers would rise exponentially. and research. Real human skeletons are found The increasing demand for cadavers in medi- around the world in biology and anatomy class- cal schools within the United States left the door rooms, most of which were supplied from India wide open for grave robbing. Despite the fact that after the riots and laws passed in the United States. grave robbing was illegal in many states, it still oc- For decades, American medical students were re- curred regularly and caused riots within a hundred quired to buy a human skeleton for school. How- year span of 1765 (Tward and Patterson 2002). ever, both demand and expenses were so high that The New York Doctors’ Riot of 1788 is among now medical schools keep their own specimens the most famous. Multiple sources recount the and only replace them when they are damaged events of the New York Doctors’ Riot as follows: a (Carney 2011: 52). In order to cut back even boy walking past the Hospital Society anatomy lab more, Stanford Medical School only supplies a saw a doctor waving an arm of a cadaver through student with half of a skeleton so that one skele- the window. The boy ran home and told his father ton can be given to two medical students (Carney what he had witnessed. When the family checked 2011: 52). While these policies have helped de- the recently deceased mother’s grave, they discov- crease the demand of human skeletons from med- ered it had been robbed and her body was missing. ical schools, there is still a demand for tissue, ca- Blaming the Hospital Society anatomy lab for the davers, and organs that cannot be fulfilled easily. desecration of their loved ones, rioters quickly or- Body snatchers, therefore, enter the lucrative ganized and began to attack the lab. The labora- business and are able to sell human materials for tory was burned down by the mob and seven riot- about two hundred thousand US dollars per body ers were killed. (Waltz 2006). What body brokers do not sell to The medical industry has always viewed grave the medical industry and researchers, they are able robbing, body snatching, and illegal ways of ob- to sell to artists or auction off on eBay (Waltz https://scholarship.shu.edu/locus/vol2/iss1/5 2 Prizzi: Body Brokerage 2006). Though it seems impossible that the red other illegal behavior like dueling and murder by market can slip through the cracks of government allowing criminals once again to be used for dis- policy, it is not as difficult as one may think. section upon death. Though it can be debated as to The United States’ Food and Drug Administra- whether these laws were successful, it is apparent tion (FDA) monitors organs for transplant but not that the using criminality as a means for providing human materials used for education or research cadavers was a common practice. (Waltz 2006). While there are many ways to ob- While there is still a demand for cadavers for tain tissue samples for research, such as donat- anatomical dissection, it is trivial compared to the ing one’s body to science, it is obviously depen- demand for transplantation organs. In fact, the dent on death itself. Waltz interviewed Eric Liu demand is so high that countries like China re- a researcher at the US National Institute of Di- lied on similar laws to that of the United States abetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases who said in the nineteenth century. To help ease some of simply, “‘[y]ou can’t predict when people will the pressures for the increasing demand for or- die’” (2006). Scientists, medical students, and re- gans, China adopted a policy to use “the organs of searchers are extremely dependent on human ma- executed prisoners for transplantation” purposes terials and since bodies donated to science do not (Diflo 2004: 30). In 1984, the United States es- have a reliable turn over, they have to resort to less tablished the United Network for Organ Sharing, than legal ways to obtain their subjects.