US university sold dead bodies for ‘Israeli military training’

The University of Southern California (USC) has received at least $860,000 from the United States Navy since late 2017 in exchange for 89 cadavers, many of which were used to train the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) in trauma surgery, according to a report by Annenberg Media.

The arrangement began when the Navy filed a formal request to purchase human bodies from USC.

The purpose was to provide hands-on training in battlefield surgery for IDF personnel, reports Reuters.

At least 32 of the corpses were used at Los Angeles General Medical Center during these sessions.

Annenberg reports that one of the contracts between USC and the Navy remains active.

Under this agreement, the university can receive an additional $225,000 for more cadavers, potentially raising USC’s total revenue from the deal to nearly $1.1 million.

Although the cadaver deals account for less than 1 percent of USC’s 367 contracts with the Navy, Annenberg Media has found no evidence of any other US university supplying bodies for IDF training.

It noted that the identities of the corpses used in the training could not be verified.

The cadavers were sourced either through the Office of Decedent Affairs or USC’s Keck Anatomical Gift Program, which accepts donations for research and education.

The outlet, however, was unable to confirm whether explicit consent had been given for the bodies to be used in military training involving the US Navy or IDF.

Thomas Champney, an anatomy professor at the University of Miami who researches the ethics of body donation, said: “Even though they’re deceased, they still deserve a level of respect and dignity and proper treatment that we would normally give to the living.”

A USC physician, who reportedly alerted the media outlet but declined to be named for fear of losing their job, said: “We all know better. You have to have consent for this. The Navy facility wasn’t designed to save lives, it was just to desensitise people to trauma.”