March 2017

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Page A12 MARCH 2017 FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS S ec t i on A
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639
Funeral Home Owner John Scott
Named New County Coroner
John Scott
DEMOPOLIS,AL— Probate Judge Laurie Hall has
named funeral director John Scott as coroner for
Marengo County following an official appointment
to replace a role vacated by the elected coroner.
Scott, a funeral director at Larkin and Scott Mortu-
ary in Demopolis, was named the county’s new coroner
January 17, 2017. For Scott, it was a logical fit. He took
over the family business as manager in 2013 following
the untimely passing of his late father, Dr. Christopher
Scott. In 2015, he became
a licensed funeral director
and embalmer and now
runs day-to-day opera-
tions alongside his cous-
in and co-owner Kelvin
Scott.
Scott said he was encouraged to apply for the vacat-
ed position and felt it would be a good fit considering
his position as a funeral director. He is the fifth gen-
eration of funeral directors at Larkin and Scott Mor-
tuary, which has been in business for 109 years. “I felt
this was an opportunity to serve. I had no doubts or
bad feelings at all about seeking the position and felt
God was leading me in the right direction,” he said.
A native of Demopolis, Scott holds a degree in busi-
ness from the University of Alabama and earned his
license for funeral directing and embalming from
East Mississippi Community College.
the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center in the Boston
area. A blood sample was sent to a laboratory. The sample
revealed Hepatitis B. A letter was sent to the family inform-
ing them and rejecting the use of the body. However, her
brain was at the Brain Tissue Resource center. It was not
Biological Resource Center that informed the center of the
brain tissue’s Hepatitis diagnosis, but a Reuter’s reporter two
years later.
The military, specifically the Army, experiments with test
dummies and hi-tech mannequins but could not duplicate
the damage of IED’s to flesh and bone. The Army’s policy re-
quires full consent from donor families. Reuters showed that
“bodies or body parts of 34 people were shipped to the mili-
tary without donor permission.”
The Army depended on the donation forms provided to
them by Biological Resource Center.
Medical schools are also purchasers of whole or body parts.
Many of their programs depend on the availability of hu-
man remains for student training and research.
“It is not illegal to sell a whole body or the parts of a body for
research or education,” Sheldon F. Kurtz, Iowa Law Professor,
who helped modify the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act, told
Reuters, “the issue of whole body bodies or parts for research
or education never came up during our discussions.”
The need for donated tissue is clear. We all will receive ben-
efits from the tissue or the knowledge it gives others.
What we need is also consistent regulation and a transpar-
ent and truthful donation process; Let a donating family de-
cide what is fair with informed choices.
In Arizona, where it may be up to 20 percent of all deaths
resulting in donations to research agencies, this is not an iso-
lated small subject.
“It was a good idea. The cremation was free, and it was do-
nating the body for medical purposes.”
–Mary Hughes on the death of her son Grady,
after a hospice nurse gave her a brochure
Steven Palmer entered funeral service in 1971. He is an honors grad-
uate of the New England Institute of Applied Arts & Sciences. He has
been licensed on both coasts, he owns the Westcott Funeral Homes of
Cottonwood and Camp Verde, AZ. Steve offers his observations on cur-
rent funeral service issues. He may be reached by mail at PO Box 352,
Cottonwood, AZ 86326, by phone at (928)634-9566, by fax at (928)634-
5156, by e-mail at or through his web-
site at or on Facebook.
Observations
“I had no money. It was a free cremation.”
–Tina Johnson, after the death of husband Kerry
Kurt Hollstein was an Army veteran dying of cancer. He
decided to donate his body for medical research. His grand-
daughter witnessed his signature on the forms and his def-
inite answer of no to military experimentation. Hollstein
was bitter about his health care experiences with the Veter-
ans Administration.
His remains were used in a military project without his
consent.
“This is almost beyond belief that his entire body went
somewhere else without his permission,” His granddaughter
Marla Yale told . “And especially to a place that
he absolutely did not want to be.”
Mr. Hollstein donated his remains to Biological Resource
Center. His donation was not the only one donated without
permission.
Reuters News Agency has recently done an extensive in-
vestigation into the body and tissue donation industry. I
have assisted their research with any knowledge I could pro-
vide. This is a continuing series of articles about the shock-
ing sale of human tissue, some not following donor wishes
and some without regard to the safety of this tissue.
The Atlantic magazine has also revealed the dark side of
some body donation programs. Oregon, Arizona andMich-
igan programs became the focus of an FBI investigation.
In Michigan, Arthur Rathburn of International Biologi-
cal, Inc. was their main study. He was a licensed Michigan
embalmer whose place of practice was not a licensed funer-
al home but a body donation business. Their investigation
found 1,000 parts of donors (arms, legs and heads), await-
ing sales.
The Michigan Bureau of Corporations, Securities and
Commercial Licensing revoked his licenses. He was ineligi-
ble for new licenses, ineligible to work for the state and fined
$10,000.
The Bureau also found Rathburn guilty of “aiding and
abetting another in engaging in the unlicensed practices of
funeral directing and embalming; failing to comply with
regulations of a state, affecting the handling, custody, care
of a dead human body; and engaging in the practice of fu-
neral directing from an unlicensed establishment.”
The FBI also investigated Oregon’s Health Legacy. At-
lantic magazine states the investigation covered employee
whistleblowers who “alleged that Legacy placed employees
and medical students at risk of exposure to disease from
cadavers and may have failed to obtain consent from fami-
lies to use their relative’s corpses.”
The investigation continued to Biological Resource in
Phoenix.
Doris Stauffer was suffering from dementia. Her son, Jim,
wanted to donate her brain for Alzheimer’s research. A nurse
gave them a brochure for Biological Resource Center. Jim
signed the authorization forms for medical research of his
mother’s remains. He checked a box prohibiting military,
traffic-safety and other non-medical experiments.
Reuters researched the journey that Doris Stauffer’s re-
mains took. Biological Resource Center (BRC) “detached
one of Doris Stauffer’s hands for cremation.” Those were
the ashes her son Jim received. BRC “sold and shipped the
rest of Stauffer’s body to a taxpayer-funded research proj-
ect for the US Amy.” He body was used to determine dam-
age to the human body from roadside bombs.
It was revealed that her brain was never used for Al-
zheimer’s research.
Investigation by Reuters also revealed that 20 or more oth-
er donated remains were used by the military in these explo-
sive experiments without permission from next of kin. The
selling price for remains such as Mrs. Stauffer is $5,893.
Biological Resource Center priced out other body parts:
spines for $1900, legs at $1300, and torsos at $3500. The
now closed Center sold more than 20,000 parts from
5,000 donated bodies over the ten years in business.
“It was never about financial gain but rather a labor of
love,” Biological Resources CEO Steve Gore wrote in an
email to Reuters.
Infected tissue was also shipped. “Eye and ear tissue in-
fected with Hepatitis B sent to researchers in Tucson; eyes
from a body that test positive for Hepatitis C to Utah for
use by a biomedical firm; and a left foot infected with
Hepatitis B to a podiatry training center near Atlanta.”
Reuters reported government documents revealed that
Rathburn’s International Biological, Inc. may have had
100 body parts that included hepatitis, HIV, sepsis, men-
ingitis, MRSA and necrotizing fasciitis (flesh eating dis-
ease).
A 76-year old donated her body. Her brain was sent to
By Steven Palmer
Tales from the
Tissue Trade