# Stealing Body Parts **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 28, 2009, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stealing-body-parts/508021 "2009-08-28T13:11:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stealing-body-parts/508021/1 "2009-08-28T13:11:08Z")
OK, so the Swedes and the Israelis are going at it hammer and thongs over allegations of body-part stealing. I have heard the Chinese (ever into recycling) sell the parts of executed prisoners. Latin America is always awash in rumors about Gringos stealing the kidneys of local children. Certainly there have been abuses (witness the rabbi in th New York area recently). But: **Has there ever been a case of an organized ring of kidnappers and organ thieves?** and **What is the most egregious case of abuse of this sort?** ---
**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stealing-body-parts/508021/2 "2009-08-28T13:54:54Z")
_“Has there ever been a case of an organized ring of kidnappers and organ thieves? and What is the most egregious case of abuse of this sort?”_ I did not find any documented cases of such activity. It is quite possible but relatively unlikely in most civilized areas. As a precaution you may want to order some titanium body armor for protection of your own kidneys, etc. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stealing-body-parts/508021/3 "2009-08-28T14:48:49Z")
Recent story about such a claim about Kosovo: [http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/04/world/europe/04serb.html](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/04/world/europe/04serb.html) Arrests made in another case: [World News: Get the latest world news reports from WalesOnline](http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/latest-world-news/tm_objectid=16742262&method=full&siteid=50082&headline=u-s---body-snatch-ring--plundered-remains-of-bbc-veteran-name_page.html) You might find this book interesting: [Organ Theft Legends - Véronique Campion-Vincent - Google Books](http://books.google.com/books?id=Ng9vLdZkWcMC&pg=PA193&dq=organ+theft#v=onepage&q=&f=false) ---
**Author:** ![IAmNotSpartacus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@IAmNotSpartacus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IAmNotSpartacus)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stealing-body-parts/508021/4 "2009-08-28T15:17:09Z")
[UCLA](http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/03/09/ucla.cadaver.suit/index.html) got in to some deep shit several years back over body parts going missing from the willed donor program. I don’t think this rises to kidnapping, since the cadavers in question were already cadavers, but it does cover the theft aspect pretty well. ---
**Author:** ![Moonshiner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@Moonshiner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonshiner)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stealing-body-parts/508021/5 "2009-08-28T15:44:30Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > OK, so the Swedes and the Israelis are going at it hammer and thongs… As a blacksmith I just have to jump in to correct that phrase. It’s “hammer and **tongs** ”. I find my hammer and tongs pretty useful in the shop, thongs not so much. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stealing-body-parts/508021/6 "2009-08-28T16:14:57Z")
There was this guy, who, like, picked up this beautiful woman at a bar, and they went back to his apartment, and he wakes up in a bathtub full of ice, and there’s this note that says CALL 911 YOU’RE OUT A KIDNEY. I swear, it’s true! My friend’s friend knows the guy! ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stealing-body-parts/508021/7 "2009-08-28T16:39:19Z")
I have read of cases, in India, where some poor villager goes in for some minor surgery and comes out missing some other organ that was later sold by the hospital on the organ market. No consent or anything, they just took it. Hard to document as what’s a reliable source in this instance? ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stealing-body-parts/508021/8 "2009-08-28T18:07:54Z")
> [@Moonshiner](#): > > As a blacksmith I just have to jump in to correct that phrase. It’s “hammer and **tongs** ”. > > I find my hammer and tongs pretty useful in the shop, thongs not so much. 😃 what, you have something against butt floss? ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stealing-body-parts/508021/9 "2009-08-28T21:18:32Z")
I have read in reliable papers of poor folks in other countries entering into contracts to sell their organs, and then not being paid. But I have never read a reliable case of organs simply being stolen from a living person. ---
**Author:** ![MeDrewNotYou](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@MeDrewNotYou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeDrewNotYou)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stealing-body-parts/508021/10 "2009-08-28T21:24:29Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > OK, so the Swedes and the Israelis are going at it hammer and thongs over allegations of body-part stealing. I have heard the Chinese (ever into recycling) sell the parts of executed prisoners. Latin America is always awash in rumors about Gringos stealing the kidneys of local children. > > Certainly there have been abuses (witness the rabbi in th New York area recently). > > But: > > **Has there ever been a case of an organized ring of kidnappers and organ thieves?** > > and > > **What is the most egregious case of abuse of this sort?** You already know too much. We’ll send someone by in the next couple of days. Go easy on the booze, I think I’ve already got a buyer for the liver. ---
**Author:** ![anson2995](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@anson2995](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anson2995)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2009, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stealing-body-parts/508021/11 "2009-08-29T01:23:22Z")
A series of trials in upstate NY just concluded, alleging that a number of funeral homes were harvesting body parts and selling them without permission. [This story](http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20090828/NEWS01/908280343/1003/Judge-acquits-defendant-in-body-parts-trial) from the last trial includes details on the larger operation. I’m sure this is not the only place and time this has happened. ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2009, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stealing-body-parts/508021/12 "2009-08-29T02:23:52Z")
> [@](#): > > …The most shocking incidents, however, are more current. According to human-rights activists, in 1990 at least thirteen indigents in Barranquilla, Colombia, were killed by the national police and sold for $150 each to the Universidad Libre for scientific purposes. In 2000 the Orange County Register’s five-part series about the tissue-banking industry found that the Los Angeles County coroner was selling organs and tissue from accident and homicide victims to researchers without the families’ permission… From this [Texas Monthly article.](http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-3026444/Allen-Tyler-had-a-good.html) (FWIW, I searched for the article simply to second what **IAmNotSpartacus** had said about UCLA. My father died about a decade ago, and Allen Tyler accepted his body into the UTMB system. After a year passed, Mom called to ask when she would receive the ashes and was told that there was some sort of unspecified delay. She received the box quite some time later. No, I haven’t shared the story with Mom and probably never will.) ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2009, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stealing-body-parts/508021/13 "2009-08-29T03:07:46Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > Latin America is always awash in rumors about Gringos stealing the kidneys of local children. Whaddya know! Quite the opposite of [this](http://www.snopes.com/horrors/drugs/deadbaby.asp) urban legend! I thought organs for transplantation had to be still-pulsating fresh. If funeral homes are selling body parts, it couldn’t be for organ transplantation. But corneas, joints, other stuff…maybe so? ---
**Author:** ![Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/regallag_the_axe/32/445_2.png) [@Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Regallag_The_Axe)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2009, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stealing-body-parts/508021/14 "2009-08-29T04:25:40Z")
> [@MeDrewNotYou](#): > > You already know too much. We’ll send someone by in the next couple of days. Go easy on the booze, I think I’ve already got a buyer for the liver. Fuck that shit, I’m drinking myself to death… got thr scothch outlaredy an everthing! Your buyerscan eat a dick! ---
**Author:** ![medstar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f07891/32.png) [@medstar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/medstar)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stealing-body-parts/508021/15 "2009-08-31T02:44:50Z")
Wasn’t there some kind of a organ selling scandal in New York a few years ago? I think the most famous cadaver belonged to the original host of Masterpiece Theater, whose name escapes me right now, maybe Alastair Sims? ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2009, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stealing-body-parts/508021/16 "2009-09-03T14:22:39Z")
Alistair Cooke, whose leg bone was taken and used for some purpose.