After a decade of service in the U.S. Army, Victor Carl Honey, like many veterans, found himself neglected by the government. For 30 years, he lived on the streets of Dallas, battling mental illness, until his death in September 2022 at the age of 58. However, it was only after his death that his body seemed to garner value—though not in a way his family or he would have ever imagined. According to an investigative report by NBC News, his body was given to a medical university, which sold his parts to various companies without his consent or the knowledge of his family.
Honey’s remains were dissected and distributed for profit. His right leg was sold to a Swedish medical device maker for $341 to help train clinicians in harvesting veins, while his torso was sold to a Pittsburgh medical education company for $900 so trainees could practice implanting spine stimulators. Even parts of his skull were sold to the U.S. Army for $210, where they were used to educate medical personnel at a hospital near San Antonio. Honey’s family only discovered his death—and the unsettling fate of his remains—nearly a year and a half later, when his son was contacted by reporters from NBC News. For his surviving relatives, the revelation was nothing short of devastating. “It’s like a hole in your soul that can never be filled,” his sister, Brenda Cloud, shared with reporters.
The selling of body parts from unclaimed bodies is part of a multi-million-dollar practice in Dallas and Tarrant counties. Since 2019, under an agreement with the University of North Texas Health Science Center, the bodies of unclaimed individuals have been sold to medical organizations for profit. Over five years, the university received more than 2,350 bodies, with over 800 dissected for various purposes. These unclaimed bodies, mostly belonging to Black, mentally ill, and homeless men like Honey, were later cremated and their ashes either scattered at sea or buried in local cemeteries. Family members of at least a dozen individuals had been searching for their loved ones but were never informed by officials about their deaths or the use of their bodies in medical research.
The university initially defended its actions, emphasizing the importance of such practices for medical training. But in the wake of NBC’s reporting, both the Health Science Center and county officials began to backtrack. On September 13, the university acknowledged “failures” in the management of its Willed Body Program. Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare, who had previously supported renewing the contract with the center, also reversed his stance, calling the practices “immoral” and vowing to end them. Experts like Thomas Champney, an anatomy professor at the University of Miami, underscored the unethical nature of these actions, arguing that no one’s remains should be used without prior consent. Honey’s family was eventually able to lay his remains to rest in Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery, but the damage caused by the violation of his dignity remains profound.
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