I think the issue is that the donors and their families are being misled to believe their body parts won’t be sold at a profit, that it’s charity. If you donate a valuable possession to a charity in the belief it’s a nonprofit, and then they turn around and sell it at a profit, you’d be rightly ticked. This is that to the nth degree.
Yes, I think that’s half the problem. The other closely related half is that a profit model for body parts caters to those with means, not those in need, which is probably not what most donors had in mind when they signed up to be donors. These “body-part brokers” are receiving a free resource from the donors and giving it only to those who can pay, with the inevitable result that those who can pay the most will determine the price.
If they’re making one red cent over costs then that fact should be clearly disclosed to the donors. Stealing charity for profit is not okay. In fact, it’s fraud.
If that was their intent that would be one thing, but people who donate their deceased bodies are generally not doing it to make money, and these companies are taking sick and blatant advantage of that to harvest a free source for their own profit.
Bingo. Which is why this is fraud. IANAL, but I honestly don’t understand how these creeps haven’t been sued out of business. Granted most of their victims don’t have the financial resources to sue, but not everyone who donates their body to science is poor, and some are probably quite well off and high profile individuals. You’d think their families could generate the political outrage for regulating this industry.
If they were a non-profit cover costs it would be fine. But they’re profiting off charity.
