The podcast explores the commodification of the human body and the questionable practices surrounding missing organs and dismembered cadavers.
It delves into the dark history of anatomical research and the dehumanization of the poor and incarcerated.
The podcast uncovers the disturbing reality of the unregulated body trade industry in the United States, highlighting the lack of transparency and the shockingly lucrative nature of the industry.
Deep dives
The Disturbing Reality of Missing Organs and Human Remains
The podcast episode explores the commodification of the human body and the questionable practices surrounding missing organs, dismembered cadavers, and procurement practices of human remains. The episode highlights cases where families discovered that their deceased loved ones' bodies were mishandled or missing organs. Theories of organ trafficking and exploitation emerge, and the episode delves into the dark history of anatomical research and the dehumanization of the poor and incarcerated. It also discusses the unregulated body trade industry in the United States, where brokers profit from the donated dead by subdividing and selling body parts.
Historical Perspective: Anatomy and the Poor
The podcast draws a historical parallel to the 18th and 19th centuries when anatomical research relied on the snatchinig of bodies from the gallows. The public's strong opposition to this practice led to riots as they saw it as a final insult to the lower classes and a dehumanization of their loved ones. The episode explores the social and cultural significance of rituals surrounding death and the treatment of human remains in earlier centuries. It highlights the contrast between the dignity of informed consent and the exploitation of bodies without consent.
Modern-Day Body Trade and Lack of Regulation
The podcast uncovers the disturbing reality of the unregulated body trade industry in the United States. It reveals that body brokers, ranging from for-profit corporations to nonprofits, receive and distribute thousands of bodies and body parts annually. The episode explores the high demand for American body parts in countries where dissection is prohibited and the entanglement of the industry with the funeral industry. It sheds light on the conflicts of interest and lack of transparency, as families are often unaware of what happens to their loved ones' remains when they are donated. The episode also discusses the pricing of body parts and the shockingly lucrative nature of the industry.
Riots and the Challenge to Social Control
During the 18th century, riots during public executions posed a problem for anatomists and the ruling class. The hangings, meant as a means of social control, instead became a stage for public defiance. The tensions came to a head during the disturbances at the execution of Bossa Bird Penlis in 1749, where rioting sailors incited a days-long riot in London. The rioters were sentenced to death, but the evidence against them was shoddy, leading to public outcry and attempted rescues.
The Anatomy Act and the Procurement of Bodies
In response to the growing demand for bodies by medical students, the Anatomy Act of 1832 was passed, allowing for the legal procurement of unclaimed bodies from workhouses, hospitals, and prisons. This legislation aimed to regulate the trade of bodies, but with ambiguous terms and lack of notification to families, the burden fell on the underclass. The act did not fully satisfy the demand for bodies, leading to the involvement of grave robbers and even commissioned murder to meet the anatomists' needs.
Over the years, we’ve heard Qanon believers loudly protest the alleged misappropriation of human remains – whether they’re being used to supply “adrenochrome farms” or consumed during satanic cabal dinner parties. As is often the case, the reality is far more disturbing than the conspiracy theory. This week, Allie Mezei joins us to bring us horrific tales from the real ‘tissue trade’, a feud between the bodies of the living and the dead that stretches all the way back to the eighteenth century. Unfortunately, the corpse trade is very much alive, even today, and continues to be a depressing reminder of the ruling class’s war against the poor.
Subscribe for $5 a month to get an extra episode of QAA every week + access to our archive of premium episodes and ongoing series like PERVERTS, Manclan, Trickle Down and The Spectral Voyager: https://www.patreon.com/QAA
Written by Allie Mezei https://twitter.com/pinealdecalcify
Music by Pontus Berghe and Nick Sena. Editing by Corey Klotz.
https://qanonanonymous.com
SOURCES:
https://www.alreporter.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Dotson-Complaint.pdf
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/01/11/us/alabama-prison-inmates-missing-organs-lawsuit/index.html
https://abcnews.go.com/amp/US/massachusetts-bill-allowing-prisoners-donate-organs-reduced-time/story?id=96989325
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9996393/
https://www.al.com/news/birmingham/2024/01/alabama-still-cant-find-heart-missing-from-prisoners-body.html
https://abc3340.com/news/local/family-says-organs-including-brain-missing-from-deceased-inmate-body-in-noticeable-state-of-decomposition-adoc-uab-st-clair-county
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3162231/
https://evolution.berkeley.edu/the-history-of-evolutionary-thought/pre-1800/comparative-anatomy-andreas-vesalius/#:~:text=Right%2C%20Vesalius%20found%20that%20the,not%20seven%20as%20Galen%20claimed.
Peter Linebaugh, the Tyburn Riots Against the Surgeons in Albion’s Fatal Tree https://www.versobooks.com/products/2212-albion-s-fatal-tree
Ruth Richardson, Death, Dissection and the Destitute https://books.google.com/books?id=NEuthk74yG0C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/about/journeytyburn
https://doi.org/10.1002/ar.24794
https://scholarworks.harding.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1139&context=tenor
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/section/usa-bodies/
https://nfda.org/news/media-center/nfda-news-releases/id/7475/congress-takes-significant-step-to-regulate-body-brokers
https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/4275?s=1&r=29
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