Human Tissue and Body Parts Trafficking Market Value: $6 Million
The Human Tissue and Body Parts market consists of the buying and selling of body parts taken from human cadavers. The supply of body parts are taken from bodies that are either donated to medical schools and other organizations, or stolen from morgues and cremation centers. As USA Today reported [...]
Price greater if body is broken up and sold
The price of a human cadaver varies depending on the way in which it is used. If the parts are dismembered and sold by piece (hand, foot, brain), then the broker will be able to gain a greater profit than if the cadaver was sold in whole.
Source: Annie Cheney, Body Brokers: Inside America’s Underground Trade [...]
Market structure of body parts trade
The Human Tissue and Body Parts market consists of the buying and selling of body parts taken from human cadavers. The supply of body parts are taken from bodies that are either donated to medical schools and other organizations, or stolen from morgues and cremation centers. As USA Today reported in 2006, ” unscrupulous employees [...]
Black market body brokers made over $6 million
According to USA Today, brokers in human tissue and body parts gained a profit of $6 million over the course of 19 years.
Source: Stephanie Armour, “Illegal Trade in bodies shakes loved ones”, USA Today, April 26, 2006, (accessed: April 28, 2006).
Person made more than $1 million selling body parts
A 2007 case in California reported by the Los Angeles Times stated that an individual “made more than $1 million by selling cadavers and body parts”.
Source: Charles Ornstein and Andrew Blankstein, “Two men charged in cadaver-trafficking scheme,” Los Angeles Times, March 7, 2007.
Making millions on the sale of body parts
American Michael Mastromarino has pleaded guilty of running a body brokering busy where he made several million dollars.
From the BBC News:
Medical supplies boss Michael Mastromarino made millions from removing body parts from corpses and selling them for transplant illegally.
One of the bodies plundered was that of famous BBC broadcaster Alistair Cooke.
Thousands of people received body [...]
Buying bones on the black market in Macedonia
Transitions Online, a magazine covering the post-communist states, reports on the underground trade in human bones for medical students in Macedonia.
From Transition Online:
Like a character in a crime movie, Olga walked through the dark alleys of the city’s Taftalidje district late one February night. Waiting in the shadows was a person whose name she didn’t [...]
Dead bodies sold on the black market
ABC News reports on dead Chinese bodies being sold on the black market to be placed on public display.
Authorities in China and New York have opened investigations into allegations that a black market in Chinese bodies, which may include executed prisoners, is sending corpses to the United States for public display.
The investigations come in the [...]
India’s black market trade in human bones
Wired Magazine has an article by Scott Carney on the black market trade of human cadavers from India.
India has long been the world’s primary source of bones used in medical study, renowned for producing specimens scrubbed to a pristine white patina and fitted with high-quality connecting hardware. In 1985, however, the Indian government outlawed the export [...]
