Through a further review of public documents since the initial story, Annenberg Media found that body donation programs at USC and the University of California San Diego provide cadavers to the training. Donors freely give their bodies to the universities for \u201cmedical training and research,\u201d however, these programs do not inform donors or their relatives about how the body would be used. In some cases, USC sells their remains, and a foreign military uses them for training.<\/p>\n
Held at USC\u2019s Navy Trauma Training Center at Los Angeles General Medical Center, these training courses invite \u201cnon-combatant surgeons, nurses and anesthesiologists from Israel,\u201d according to a statement from the Keck School of Medicine. The most recent contract<\/a> states that part of this course includes \u201ca three-day hands-on training on non-perfused and perfused cadaver bodies.\u201d Perfused cadavers are bodies pumped with artificial blood after death to better simulate a live patient.<\/p>\n Many of the courses exclusively serve U.S. military personnel, but out of 36 cadavers provided to the program in the past two years, the Israeli military used 12, according to the contract.<\/p>\n In a statement to Annenberg Media, Keck wrote that the practice of inviting international medical personnel to train at USC began in 2013.<\/p>\n \u201cOur trauma training program is aimed at preparing medical professionals to deliver lifesaving care wherever trauma occurs,\u201d Keck wrote. \u201cThe courses under the Navy\u2019s contract comprise a very small portion of the trainings conducted in 2024-25 in the lab, where trainings for more than a dozen medical specialties are conducted, from orthopedics to cardiothoracic surgery and neurosurgery.\u201d<\/p>\n The \u2018false\u2019 body source<\/b><\/p>\n Annenberg Media previously reported on the seemingly apparent connection between the program and L.A. County\u2019s Office of Decedent Affairs. A lab manager, surgery professor and surgery director \u2014 all of whom worked at USC at the time \u2014 co-authored a report<\/a> with two other researchers in 2020 that listed the ODA as the source of bodies in the program with the Israeli military.<\/p>\n But L.A. Health Services said this month that the information in the report was \u201cincorrect and false\u201d and that it had not provided the bodies.<\/p>\n \u201cThe authors appear to have assumed\u2014erroneously and without verification\u2014that the cadavers used for training foreign military personnel came from the same source as cadavers used to train physicians in County residency and fellowship programs. That assumption is wrong,\u201d Health Services wrote in a statement to Annenberg Media. \u201cTo be unequivocal: Los Angeles County has never provided cadavers for foreign military training.\u201d<\/p>\n The authors included USC\u2019s Michael Minneti, Demetrios Demetriades and Kenji Inaba, as well as West Virginia University\u2019s Daniel Grabo and former NTTC director Travis Polk.<\/p>\n Inaba declined to comment. None of the other authors responded to repeated requests for comment.<\/p>\n Health Services also contacted the Navy, which Health Services said confirmed that the cadavers were obtained elsewhere. Navy representatives and the Pentagon press contacts did not respond to Annenberg Media\u2019s requests for comment.<\/p>\n The true body source<\/b><\/p>\n According to Keck, cadavers used in the program came from two places. Some came from USC\u2019s own donations. A majority came from \u201canother academic medical institution.\u201d<\/p>\n This institution was not mentioned previously in any statement or forward-facing document. However, there was an indicator written in a 2021 Request for Quote<\/a> sent from the Navy to USC.<\/p>\n \u201cThe contractor shall coordinate the acquisition of fully tested fresh tissue cadaver bodies from the University of California San Diego School of Medicine and transport the cadaver bodies to the [Fresh Tissue Dissection Lab] based on the allocated NTTC curriculum schedule and IDF course schedule,\u201d the document reads.<\/p>\n Keck did not name any cadaver source directly but did state that all of the cadavers had been donated. At USC, bodies are donated through the Anatomical Gift Program; at UCSD, they are donated through the Body Donation Program.<\/p>\n USC and UCSD advertise their body donation programs as a rare and meaningful opportunity for people to advance \u201clifesaving\u201d scientific and medical research.<\/p>\n University of California Health\u2019s website<\/a> tells potential donors: \u201cYour gift can provide resources for research that improves the health and lives of people for generations to come.\u201d<\/p>\n USC\u2019s Anatomic Gift Program<\/a> shares a similar message: \u201cWe sincerely hope you will become one of those extraordinary people who make it possible for others to live long and healthy lives.\u201d<\/p>\n In reality, people who donate their bodies to science may be unknowingly surrendering their remains to the country\u2019s widely unregulated, for-profit cadaver market.<\/p>\n On the \u201cFrequently Asked Questions<\/a>\u201d page for their Body Donation Program, UCSD explains that a donor\u2019s loved ones cannot legally be compensated for their gift.<\/p>\n \u201cNo payment may be made in connection with a body donation,\u201d the page reads. \u201cThis policy is in accordance with State laws, and all institutions accepting human remains must comply with it.\u201d<\/p>\n However, this statement is not entirely true.<\/p>\n The sale of bodies, according to law<\/b><\/p>\n Although the National Organ Transplant Act of 1984<\/a> explicitly prohibits selling organs for transplantation, it does not prohibit academic institutions from participating in the sale of whole cadavers or body parts intended for research, education or dissection.<\/p>\n Under federal law, anyone can legally buy and sell human body parts without training or licensing. Body brokers can sell a donated body for $5,000-$10,000 or more, with parts being repeatedly sold and leased across state lines.<\/p>\n In California, the penal code<\/a> prohibits the sale or transfer of human organs for transplantation, but again, this does not apply to research, education or dissection.<\/p>\n Once a person donates their body to \u201cscience,\u201d few states regulate use, and families lose the ability to track what happens. Under the current regulatory environment, universities operate body donation programs where they receive bodies at no cost from grieving families, retain broad discretion over how those bodies are used and, in USC\u2019s case, even sell them.<\/p>\n USC\u2019s Anatomical Gift Program receives approximately 100 body donations each year<\/a>. All participants sign a waiver granting Keck authority to use their remains for \u201cteaching, research or such purposes as USC shall, in its sole discretion, deem advisable.\u201d The university provides no further specification of what these additional purposes might entail.<\/p>\n Beyond educational and research applications, the agreement<\/a> explicitly permits photographing and videotaping of remains. Donors are also asked to authorize USC to permanently retain portions of their bodies. Under this provision, these retained portions would be excluded from cremation when remains are eventually returned to families. Instead, USC may cremate the retained tissue at an unspecified future date, with no return to next of kin.<\/p>\n The University of California system operates on a much larger scale, receiving more than 1,000 body donations each year<\/a> across its campuses \u2014 10 times the volume of USC\u2019s program. UCSD\u2019s approach differs fundamentally in its treatment of families. The donation agreement<\/a> explicitly states that cremated remains will not be returned under any circumstances, and donors must waive their survivors\u2019 right to receive their remains back.<\/p>\n After studies are completed, donations are cremated and scattered at sea. Critically, survivors will not be notified of the time, place, or manner of disposition of the body or any part of the body. Families never learn when the university finishes its studies, when cremation occurs or where ashes are scattered.<\/p>\n Neither program is required by federal law to provide detailed accounting of how bodies are used, whether parts are shared with other institutions or what specific research purposes they serve.<\/p>\n Both body donation programs<\/a> state on their FAQ pages<\/a> that information regarding the use of a cadaver will not be made available.<\/p>\n L.A. General: Uninvolved or complicit?<\/b><\/p>\n L.A. General, despite housing the physical location where the courses took place, maintained that it did not associate with the Israeli military program.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Fresh Tissue Dissection Laboratory is a jointly funded resource designed to support the training of our physicians, faculty, and trainees,\u201d L.A. General wrote in a statement to Annenberg Media. \u201cThe County has no agreement or role regarding any use of this laboratory by foreign military personnel.\u201d<\/p>\n The hospital\u2019s physician housestaff union, however, argued that providing the facility itself made L.A. General complicit.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is unacceptable that our public hospitals and institutions, which are designed to serve our most vulnerable communities, are instead engaged in the exploitation of our patients to support the training of military personnel,\u201d a union representative wrote in a statement to Annenberg Media.<\/p>\n The union went on to emphasize that the Navy\u2019s extension of its contract with the university went against the union\u2019s core values as healthcare workers.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is our responsibility as medical doctors to honor the sanctity of all human life, in death as in life,\u201d the union wrote. \u201cWe reject the collaboration between our public hospital and a foreign military at the expense of our patient population.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018A horrifying use of their body\u2019<\/b><\/p>\n A member of Healthcare Workers for Palestine \u2014 Liza Goldman Huertas, a family medicine doctor who received her medical degree from Yale University \u2014 said she found USC\u2019s decision to sell donated cadavers to support the military efforts of a \u201cgenocidal state\u201d to be highly unethical.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we raise genocide in other contexts, somehow people can understand that, yes, you can be a doctor in the health organization of a genocidal state,\u201d Goldman Huertas said. \u201cWe understand why a partnership with Nazi doctors \u2026 or even a partnership with German doctors during Nazi times [would have been] problematic. Ethically, there\u2019s no other way to respond to it except to break ties.\u201d<\/p>\n A genetic counselor and member of Healthcare Workers for Palestine, who requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation from their employer, took issue with the lack of information and oversight provided.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s really a lack of regulation or any sort of ethical parameters on how these bodies should be used,\u201d the genetic counselor said. \u201cSpecifically in medicine, we talk about informed consent. The whole informed consent protocol came about because of exploitation of individuals from marginalized backgrounds.\u201d<\/p>\n Body donations cannot be given for a specific purpose, and relatives remain unaware of the body\u2019s use afterward. Although Keck said donors gave \u201cfull consent for use in medical training and research,\u201d the donors never would\u2019ve been aware that the Israeli military would use their body.<\/p>\n Goldman Huertas could not imagine any individual giving that consent, had the eventual destination of the body been provided.<\/p>\n \u201cThe vast majority of people would find this a horrifying use of their body,\u201d Goldman Huertas said. \u201cYou\u2019re supposed to go to great lengths to try to figure out the way that people would want their body used, and as I said, I find it very difficult to think of anyone who would want their body used this way.\u201d<\/p>\n Moving forward, Goldman Huertas said an independent inquiry into the university\u2019s partnership with the IDF could restore the community\u2019s trust in the Anatomic Gift Program as well as USC\u2019s medical school.<\/p>\n \u201cI would be happy to join a team of people to find out just exactly what happened,\u201d Goldman Huertas said. \u201cI think the first step is always truth, and then trying to figure out how to prevent it from happening again and learning some of the deeper lessons.\u201d<\/p>\n Annenberg Media asked USC whether there were plans to end the program with the Israeli military after the conclusion of the current contract in September 2026. The university did not answer that question.<\/p>\n UCSD did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n USC\u2019s AGP did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n UCSD\u2019s BDP did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n USC\u2019s Institutional Biosafety Committee did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n USC\u2019s Department of Surgery did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n The Israeli military declined to comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In late September, the U.S. Navy paid USC over $200,000 for more dead bodies. The university sold these…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":543101,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[239311,56221,239312,1582,140797,276,239316,239314,8621,128301,4784,239315,2961,224,5337,239313,5502,239310,239317,72988,115458,76601,11016],"class_list":{"0":"post-543100","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-anatomical-gift-program","9":"tag-bodies","10":"tag-body-donation-program","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-cadavers","13":"tag-california","14":"tag-daniel-grabo","15":"tag-demetrios-demetriades","16":"tag-donation","17":"tag-donor","18":"tag-idf","19":"tag-kenji-inaba","20":"tag-la","21":"tag-los-angeles","22":"tag-losangeles","23":"tag-michael-minneti","24":"tag-navy","25":"tag-trauma-training","26":"tag-travis-polk","27":"tag-ucsd","28":"tag-university-of-california-san-diego","29":"tag-university-of-southern-california","30":"tag-usc"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115959017269700335","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"USC](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/ATCE2XAG2RDOHJDRZPERA425SM.jpg\")
USC Keck School of Medicine building on the Health Sciences Campus. (Photo by Heather Mimikos) <\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/ADMZKHKL55APPPCFYBCJLUP7KM.jpg\")
UC San Diego regularly sends donated bodies elsewhere and does not need to retrieve the remains to return them to families. (Photo courtesy of “TritonsRising” on Wikimedia Commons) <\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/OIMGAZJB45GIRL7BAVS425ZDIA.jpg\")
UCSD did not respond to requests for comment. (Photo courtesy of “Coolcaesar” on Wikimedia Commons) <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/VN7U2MM6SNCRZBKGGLEZ2IGA7E.jpg\")
USC Keck Hospital. (Photo by Ling Luo) (LING LUO) <\/p>\n