# Human body = how much money? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 13, 2007, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-body-how-much-money/392092 "2007-02-13T23:06:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![indierock82](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f14d63/32.png) [@indierock82](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/indierock82)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-body-how-much-money/392092/1 "2007-02-13T23:06:51Z")
We’re writing a paper in school about the value of human life and since it can be measured in a multitude of ways I’m going to define my question more precisely: If you break down the human body to it’s chemical components (Carbon, Oxygen etc.) how much would it be worth? I read somewhere (_many_ years ago) that we’re talking about a few measly dollars. How much is it really? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-body-how-much-money/392092/2 "2007-02-13T23:16:45Z")
If you break it down into elements, it’ll be worth diddly squat. There are very few truly valuable elements, and none of them are part of the human body. If you don’t break it down, though, there are some pretty valuable compounds in there. Insulin, for instance, could be harvested from a human pancreas, and sold to a diabetic. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2007, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-body-how-much-money/392092/3 "2007-02-13T23:21:38Z")
['Bout a dollar.](http://www.coolquiz.com/trivia/explain/docs/worth.asp) If your skin was as useful as cow hide (it isn’t), then you might fetch another $3.50 for that. ---
**Author:** ![FRDE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e68b1a/32.png) [@FRDE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FRDE)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-body-how-much-money/392092/4 "2007-02-14T10:12:28Z")
Think of it like this, take a state of the art computer, now break it down into elements, the most valuable element might be gold - but there ain’t much of it. The Koh-i-noor diamond is worth a few bucks, but the carbon it is made of is worth less than a second hand pencil. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-body-how-much-money/392092/5 "2007-02-14T10:19:41Z")
Well technically if you could break it down into pure elements it would be worth a few hundred bucks. Analytical grade reagents don’t come cheap and there should easily be a few hundred dollars worth of metallic calcium, sodium and so forth in the human. But in this case it’s the refining that will make you the money, not the materials. A few bucketsful of seawater would yield pretty much the same materials. Hence the reason everyone is saying that it’s worthless in elemental form. The elements on the human body aren’t in any way rare in their normal combined forms. ---
**Author:** ![indierock82](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f14d63/32.png) [@indierock82](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/indierock82)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-body-how-much-money/392092/6 "2007-02-14T12:22:58Z")
Excellent answers! I’ve taken them to heart and will enlighten the rest of the group! ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-body-how-much-money/392092/7 "2007-02-14T12:28:55Z")
Depends on the form of those elements. If you sell the carbon in crystalline form, it might be worth something. ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-body-how-much-money/392092/8 "2007-02-14T13:58:44Z")
As fat, minerals and water it isn’t worth much (thats all you boil down to, pretty much). As cataracts and kidneys and liver and skin and heart and femurs and such it is worth heaps. As collagen and insulin and pituitary extract and adrenal extracts and other biochemicals it also has considerable value. I worked in a place that had researchers working on rendering cow and sheep carcasses into biochemicals rather than fat - far, far more profitable. Si ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-body-how-much-money/392092/9 "2007-02-14T14:47:07Z")
IIRC, real human skeletons for use by medical students can cost several thousand dollars. Actual shurnken heads can sell for tens of thousand. ---
**Author:** ![Chief\_Pedant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@Chief\_Pedant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chief_Pedant)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-body-how-much-money/392092/10 "2007-02-14T15:34:07Z")
[QUOTE=indierock82] We’re writing a paper in school about the value of human life and since it can be measured in a multitude of ways I’m going to define my question more precisely: If you break down the human body to it’s chemical components (Carbon, Oxygen etc.) how much would it be worth? I read somewhere (_many_ years ago) that we’re talking about a few measly dollars. How much is it really? [/QUOTE] Two other fine points: 1. There is a difference between the concept of worth/value, and price/cost. You might want to try to refine which one they are addressing. 2. A human “life” is quite a bit different from a human body. I’ve seen quite a few dead ones and I can attest to the fact that that sneaky little notion of being “alive” is remarkably different from a collection of chemical elements, even when those elements are arranged in the molecular structure that makes a human body. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-body-how-much-money/392092/11 "2007-02-14T15:48:31Z")
Medical products harvested from dead bodies can fetch as much as $220,000 from a single cadaver. > [@](#): > > A typical donor produces $14,000 to $34,000 in sales for the nonprofits, records and interviews show. But yields can be far greater. > > Skin, tendons, heart valves, veins and corneas are listed at about $110,000. Add bone from the same body, and one cadaver can be worth about $220,000. [http://www.ocregister.com/features/body/day1.shtml](http://www.ocregister.com/features/body/day1.shtml) ---
**Author:** ![FRDE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e68b1a/32.png) [@FRDE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FRDE)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-body-how-much-money/392092/12 "2007-02-15T12:00:09Z")
> **[tollbit-host.com](https://tollbit-host.com/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2005%2F12%2F23%2Fncooke23.xml&sSheet=%2Fportal%2F2005%2F12%2F23%2Fixportal.html&xml=%2Fnews%2F2005%2F12%2F23%2Fncooke23.xml&sSheet=%2Fportal%2F2005%2F12%2F23%2Fixportal.html)** > > Find information, resources and relevant links for tollbit-host.com. This domain may be for sale. > [@](#): > > Relatives of Alistair Cooke, the late broadcaster, have spoken of their revulsion after it was found that his bones were cut from his body by a criminal gang and sold for transplant tissue. > > New York police said his body was one of dozens chopped up for profit by rogue morticians in Brooklyn. ---
**Author:** ![Jake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-body-how-much-money/392092/13 "2007-02-16T20:31:19Z")
The article also said the bones were cancerous. Hm… Can a cancerous bone from a cadaver become “active” again when transplanted to another human being? It seems like the cancer cells would die when the donor dies. Or do the cells somehow “hang on” after the donor’s death? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-body-how-much-money/392092/14 "2007-02-16T21:38:46Z")
If the cells are dead, the organ is useless for transplant. Cells can be and routinely are kept alive after the total organism is dead. Yes, whatever unfortunate schmuck got those diseased bones (and possibly aslo anyone who got any organ from the same body) now faces bone cancer. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-body-how-much-money/392092/15 "2007-02-16T21:55:23Z")
[QUOTE=Jake] The article also said the bones were cancerous. Hm… Can a cancerous bone from a cadaver become “active” again when transplanted to another human being? It seems like the cancer cells would die when the donor dies. Or do the cells somehow “hang on” after the donor’s death? [/QUOTE] This is the exact plot of a Law & Order that was on a couple of weeks ago. In a case obviously based on the recent harvested body parts scandal a boy dies of ovarian cancer[!] because he got a leg bone graft from a donor who had that cancer. The doctor did it because the odds against ovarian cancer metastasizing to the bones were extremely low, but it happened anyway. And the bones were harvested from the woman within two hours of her death to ensure that they would still be usable. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2007, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-body-how-much-money/392092/16 "2007-02-16T23:05:05Z")
[QUOTE=si\_blakely] As cataracts and kidneys and liver and skin and heart and femurs and such it is worth heaps. [/QUOTE] Nitpick: I think you mean _corneas_. Cataracts are hard enough to _give_ away. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2007, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-body-how-much-money/392092/17 "2007-02-17T01:17:21Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] Depends on the form of those elements. If you sell the carbon in crystalline form, it might be worth something. [/QUOTE] I recently read of a company that will make an artificial diamond out of a sample of your departed loeved one’s ashes. I don’t have time now to search it out but if anyone is interested … For the OP: this might be an interesting twist on your research.