‘An insult to human dignity’: federal agents discovered four preserved foetuses in body broker’s warehouse
Industry has been built largely on the poor, who donate their bodies in return for a free cremation of leftover parts
Federal agents discovered four preserved foetuses in the Detroit warehouse of a man who sold human body parts, confidential photographs reviewed by Reuters show.
The foetuses were found during a December 2013 raid of businessman Arthur Rathburn’s warehouse. The foetuses, which appear to have been in their second trimester, were submerged in a liquid that included human brain tissue.
Rathburn, a former body broker, is accused of defrauding customers by sending them diseased body parts. He has pleaded not guilty and his trial is set for January.
How Rathburn acquired the foetuses and what he intended to do with them is unclear. Rathburn’s lawyers did not respond to requests for comment, and neither the indictment nor other documents made public in his case mention the foetuses.
“This needs to be reviewed,” said US Representative Marsha Blackburn, a Republican from Tennessee who recently chaired a special US House committee on the use of fetal tissue.
Blackburn recoiled when a Reuters reporter showed her some of the photographs, taken by government officials involved in the raid.