The black market for body parts is a subject Dale Abrahamson hasn’t had to deal with in his five-plus years as the main cadaver contact for Kansas University Medical Center.

At least, no one has approached him about making a purchase, he said.

“I can say with utter confidence and complete honesty, I am unaware of there being the unethical or illegal purchase and distribution of human remains anywhere in this part of the country,” he said.

As chairman of anatomy and cell biology at the Med Center, Abrahamson oversees the school’s willed-body program, which brought in about 200 cadavers to the school last year on condition that they be used solely for medical research and teaching. Despite a series of recent allegations at the University of California-Los Angeles involving the sale of body parts for personal gain, Abrahamson said he thought such sales were extremely rare.

“If there were ever … something that didn’t seem to add up, I would assure you that we would investigate it,” he said.

The Med Center is the only institution in the state licensed to receive and transport human remains for medical research, he said.

The cadavers come from people who signed a certificate bequeathing their bodies to the school. KU doesn’t solicit donors, and enough people know of the school’s need for bodies that it maintains a regular supply, Abrahamson said.

The bodies are embalmed, kept in a secure morgue, then distributed to Med Center classes.

“This becomes the student’s first patient, and it’s someone that they will remember and carry with them throughout their entire careers,” he said.

Demand for cadaver tissue fuels illegal activity KU willed body program information (pdf) UCLA embalmer arrested in cadaver theft ring (3-7-04) UCLA acknowledges sale of cadaver body parts (3-9-04)

Some bodies are used by specialists to refresh their education or for research on new medical devices or techniques. Bodies also go to classes at KU’s Lawrence campus, the Med Center’s Wichita campus, Emporia State and Fort Hays State, he said.

Professors must sign a form pledging that the only use of the so-called “material” will be for medical education and research. The center does not distribute bodies to any organization other than a licensed educational institution, and it only delivers them intact, Abrahamson said.

By the time the bodies get to teachers and researchers, they’re embalmed, which makes them virtually useless for lucrative transplants. Kelly Johnson, an instructor who teaches anatomy in KU’s biology division in Lawrence, said he couldn’t imagine a use, other than academic, anyone would have for an embalmed cadaver.

“Every once in a while, it seems like someone makes a run on the cadaver labs and steals one and sets it out by Potter Lake,” he said, but that’s about as sophisticated an operation as he’s seen.

When work with the bodies is finished, they’re returned to the Med Center and cremated. Abrahamson said he couldn’t rule out the idea of a rogue employee using bodies improperly, but he said it was unlikely.

“Most of the people that are involved in these kinds of programs … do everything they can to make sure that the material they receive is used in an appropriate way,” he said.