Tarrant County in Texas has revised its policy regarding unclaimed bodies, shifting from giving them to a local medical school without consent to cremating or burying them only after making every effort to contact relatives. This change comes after an NBC News investigation revealed that the University of North Texas Health Science Center had received unclaimed bodies and leased them out for research without proper consent. The revamped policy aims to handle bodies more ethically by requiring officials to try to locate and contact family members before declaring the bodies unclaimed. The county will now take responsibility for this process, at an estimated cost of $675,000 per year. The new policy also outlines efforts to respect the deceased individuals’ religion and personal preferences. This shift was influenced by a bioethicist’s concerns about the lack of consent in using unclaimed bodies for research. Families of individuals whose bodies were provided to the medical school without consent have expressed anger and distress, leading to the implementation of the new policy. The county aims to honor the dignity and memory of deceased individuals while emphasizing the importance of ethical oversight and consent in handling unclaimed bodies.
Photo credit
www.nbcnews.com