Biomedical Tissue Services, they say, secretly carved up hundreds of cadavers without the families of the deceased knowing about it, then peddled the pieces on the lucrative non-organ body parts market. Even scarier: They say BTS doctored paperwork to hide the inconvenient fact that some of the dead were old and diseased. As a result, they say, the market was flooded with potentially tainted tissue, and an untold number of patients across the country may have received infections along with their dental implants and hip replacements.
Authorities released photos of exhumed corpses that were boned below the waist like a freshly caught fish. The defendants, they alleged, had made a crude attempt to cover their tracks by sewing PVC pipe back into the bodies in time for open-casket wakes.
Death certificates in the company's files, the report said, were at odds with those on file with the state: The company's version made people younger than they actually were, and altered the cause and time of the deaths.
That sounds so much like "Bones" episode 1.20: "The Graft In The Girl" (first aired Apr 26th 2006) that I wonder if the writers didn't have some inside knowledge!
Wow yes I was about to make the same comment.
IIRC the story about these freaks is from earlier in the year (or late 2005; my memory sucks), so that episode was undoubtedly based on this.
Yes, I'd first read about it back in January, I think it was.
All of you should watch TV that sucks less.
I hope I didn't get any second-rate cadaver bone when the doc rebuilt my knee after my skiing accident last year...
That is why titanium is superior.
Go go implants.
Oh, there's plenty of titanium in there too, but my tibial plateau collapsed and they had to pack it with cadaver bone so there was something for the bone to grow back in to.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/seangraham/tags/leg/
I also had bone inserted. The bone was necessary for new space in my palette that opened up. I think they acquired the bone from elsewhere in my head-nasal area, but I am fuzzy on the details. They were doing so much stuff I couldn't keep track. I just said "go!"
You can see my tiny implants here:
http://www.artmonstergirl.com/selfportraits/xrays.html
Cool!
They talked about replacing my knee, but the replacements only last 15-20 years (on the outside), which would mean a few future surgeries for me... My knee feels great now (1+ years post surgery), but I will eventually have arthritic problems according to the doctor (since I killed alot of cartiliage)... But I figure when that starts up THEN I'll get the bastard replaced... :)
I see! Yes. Fortunately my jaw and head should last as long as I take good care of them :) No tricky cartilage issue. If the fit is right, the upper and lower jaw have a wonderful self-correcting mechanism based on pressure. Teeth don't have a chance to move about or lose bone mass. (That's a problem!)
Hopefully by the time you get your knee replaced they'll be coming out with Knee 3000.5.9, The Dominator, and you'll be able to run marathons on it, and it will last 90 years.
Here we are in the 21st century, and technologically complex rites of endogenous cannibalism are still slithering through society's unconscious. Is this really about the violation of the dead, transmission of disease through poor medicine, or more about the supression of atavistic rituals of keeping our loved ones with us by incorporating their physical flesh within ourselves?
PS PVC, the product of a million uses. :p
Wank, wank, wank. It's about our failure as a society to establish and promote a real organ donation program. Even assuming that opt-out isn't political feasible, there should be widespread economic incentives for opting in. Here we are in the 21st century, and people die every day because outdated superstitions limit organ donation.
The USA can't even organise a safe blood donation program. The profit motive (for both blood banks and donors) wins out over safety.
Well, naturally I was screwing around, not proposing some thesis research...what do you think is the origin of these outdated beliefs, though? After all, attending the Final Judgement of Xian belief does not require having all body parts present and accounted for.
Yes, wank. Good grief. And the "T" word was wankish also.
I'd like some cultured skin and organs too, please. And some bionic prosthetics.
Hear hear.
I'm disappointed that duct tape was not mentioned.
Was that really necessary?
No, but that rarely stops them.
Presumably using the "T" word got their department federal funding of some kind, so yeah, probably.
Excellent point. I wonder if that means that SRL could get a grant. Presumably, that would be more acceptable to Republicans than an NEA grant.
Actually, replacing bones with PVC pipe is pretty standard for corpses that have had their bodies donated to science. Usually, of course, the deceased have willed their bodies, and the families have consented...
...that way if you dig the grave in the wrong place and interupt a sprinker line, no harm no foul, just link it all up and go on through.
Rainbird's in on this shit, we know it.
So much for that afternoon snack I was eating.