Are Body Brokers Just the Modern Body Burkers? Tracing the Acquisition and Sale of Donated Bodies and the Lack of Effective Regulation
Loading...
Authors
Steadman, Jean
Issue Date
2025-12
Volume
59
Issue
1
Type
Journal Article
Language
Keywords
Alternative Title
Abstract
Donated bodies are essential to the advancement of medicine and science. However, the supply and demand for donated bodies is often disproportionate. Thus, bodies have often been acquired through illegal and questionable means to then be sold or leased. Those who used illegal murderous means of acquiring bodies for medical research were referred to as “graverobbers”, “resurrectionists”, and “body ‘Burkers.’” As such, criminal laws were passed not only to regulate, but to end those practices. Today, those who acquire, sell, and lease donated bodies are called “body brokers”, and they exist and operate in a largely unregulated world. This Article reviews the history of the body acquisition business by voluntary and involuntary means, illegal conduct, and ultimately unscrupulous activity that falls into a grey, unregulated area. Additionally, this Article examines the legal regulations governing body donation for medical and scientific purposes, while highlighting the absence of a regulatory framework for “body brokers,” who often acquire donated bodies and sell them without the consent or knowledge of the donor’s family. Further, this Article traces the inefficiencies of the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act and associated state laws that police modern body broker activity. It posits two solutions: regulate body brokers through expanded federal legislation or explore innovative approaches by extending and applying contract law to these transactions. This Article concludes that, without new and effective regulation of modern day “body brokers”, there has been little legal progress since graverobbing and murderous body Burkers were prevalent, as today’s body brokers continue to commit atrocious acts on donated bodies with impunity.
Science Advances One Funeral at a Time.
-Max Plank
Description
Citation
Publisher
Creighton University School of Law