• Global Financial Integrity watchdog, the Council of Europe says the illicit trade in human organs is worth between $600 million and $1.2 billion every year
GREATER LA multi-part investigation
The big and shady business of organ harvesting
Hosted by Steve Chiotakis Oct. 17, 2019 LOS ANGELES
Organ donation form.Photo credit: Magnus D (CC BY 2.0)
Did you tick the donor box when you got your driver’s license? That may mean that upon your death, an organ harvesting company can rush to get your bones, organs, or tissue at the morgue, even before your body is seen by the coroner. According to a multi-part investigation by the LA Times, those companies are selling body parts for big money. And in some cases, the procurement companies have upended death investigations.
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Full Coverage: The Times’ investigation into how companies that harvest body parts upend death investigations
Companies that harvest human organs, bones and other parts have moved into government morgues across the country to gain access to more bodies. In some cases, procurement teams are taking body parts before coroners are able to conduct an autopsy, even in the midst of sensitive investigations such as possible homicides. The procurement companies say there has never been a case in which a death investigation has been harmed by the procurement of body parts. Yet, The Times found more than two dozen cases in which investigations were complicated or upended by procurement, in just two Southern California morgues.
In the rush to harvest body parts, death investigations have been upended Oct. 13, 2019
The Times found a rising number of death investigations across the country were complicated or upended after transplantable body parts were taken before a coroner’s autopsy.
How organ and tissue donation companies worked their way into the county morgue Oct. 13, 2019
How firms helped rewrite a law to make it difficult for coroners to stop them from harvesting body parts.
Key cases where death probes were complicated by harvesting of body parts Oct. 13, 2019
The Times found dozens of cases in which autopsy investigations were hindered or delayed by the procurement of tissues or organs — something the industry claims never happens.
Worried about how your body parts will be used? Here’s what you can do Oct. 13, 2019
Worried about the risks of organ donation? Here’s what you can do
Executives coached coroners on how to keep body parts harvesting records secret
Oct. 13, 2019
Executives coached coroners on how to keep body parts harvesting records secret
Summary of findings: What can go wrong when firms harvest bodies before autopsies Oct. 13, 2019
Los Angeles Times reporters found two dozen cases in which a death investigation was harmed by the procurement of body parts.
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Do you have a story to share about the donation of tissues or organs during a death investigation? Oct. 13, 2019
Tell us here.
BUSINESS
County supervisors to examine body part harvesting in the morgue after Times investigation Oct. 30, 2019
L.A. County supervisors order an in-depth report on body part procurement in the morgue after Times investigation.
BUSINESS
Coroner employees say body part donation interfered with death investigations
Feb. 8, 2020
In internal complaints, emails and other documents, pathologists, investigators and other coroner employees detailed how procurement interfered with their work.
BUSINESS
Before harvesting body parts, procurement firm must preserve evidence, coroner says Feb. 11, 2020
A company that procures body parts from the deceased in the Los Angeles County morgue will begin preserving evidence in death investigations by taking photos of bodies, the county’s chief medical examiner-coroner told the board of supervisors Tuesday.
“When children learn to devalue others, they can devalue anyone, including their parents.”
