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Philadelphia undertakers admit selling corpses
Reuters ^ | Tue Sep 2, 2008 | By Jon Hurdle

Posted on 09/05/2008 5:10:30 AM PDT by Calpernia

Two former Philadelphia funeral directors on Tuesday admitted to selling cadavers to a ring that cut them up and sold the body parts to hospitals for implants.

Gerald Garzone and his brother Louis Garzone pleaded guilty to charges that they conspired with others to take bones, skin and organs from 244 bodies in their funeral homes between February 2004 and September 2005.

They were part of a scheme that plundered 1,077 bodies in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania without the permission of relatives in an operation that netted the conspirators $3.8 million.

One of the bodies belonged to Alistair Cooke, the British foreign correspondent known for his "Letter from America" for the BBC and as host of the PBS television show "Masterpiece Theater". He died of cancer in 2004.

Michael Mastromarino, 44, a New Jersey dentist, was sentenced in June to a minimum of 18 years and a maximum of 54 years in prison after admitting to leading the scheme.

Some of the bodies were infected with HIV, hepatitis and other diseases, and used in transplants by at least five Philadelphia-area hospitals, prompting hundreds of lawsuits by the families of transplant recipients.

(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...


TOPICS: Health/Medicine; Local News
KEYWORDS: abuseofpower; bodybrokers; cultureofcorruption; geneticcannibalism; graverobbers; hepatitis; hiv; medicalcorruption; organharvesting; philadelphia; stolenorgans
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To: Calpernia
Two former Philadelphia funeral directors on Tuesday admitted to selling cadavers to a ring that cut them up and sold the body parts to hospitals for implants.

Notice how apparently the hospitals didn't ask "where'd you get it" or were willing accomplices in this conspiracy.

And these people will get to make life and death decisions.

21 posted on 09/05/2008 6:04:13 AM PDT by weegee (Better to support a pitbull in lipstick than to be in a party that is putting lipstick on a pig.)
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To: Calpernia

In the beef processing industry, those are called “by- products sales.”


22 posted on 09/05/2008 6:05:06 AM PDT by PGR88
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To: Calpernia

Isn’t a cadaver a body that is being examined by medical students or other persons doing research (including balistics tests or decay studies)?

Isn’t it more accurate to discuss these as CORPSES that were violated and NOT cadavers since there was no personal or family consent to have the bodies cut up for parts?


23 posted on 09/05/2008 6:09:13 AM PDT by weegee (Better to support a pitbull in lipstick than to be in a party that is putting lipstick on a pig.)
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To: PGR88

That is true. But the recall the FDA put out on that tissue is much harder to recall once implanted into healthy tissue.


24 posted on 09/05/2008 6:15:17 AM PDT by Calpernia (Hunters Rangers - Raising the Bar of Integrity http://www.barofintegrity.us)
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To: Calpernia

Well, we are after all, just cogs in the machine..../sarc
susie


25 posted on 09/05/2008 6:15:54 AM PDT by brytlea (If you are voting third party, you are definitely voting for Obama!)
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To: weegee

They did produce forged releases in Mastromarino’s trial.


26 posted on 09/05/2008 6:17:26 AM PDT by Calpernia (Hunters Rangers - Raising the Bar of Integrity http://www.barofintegrity.us)
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To: weegee

I agree. They are corpses.


27 posted on 09/05/2008 6:18:22 AM PDT by Calpernia (Hunters Rangers - Raising the Bar of Integrity http://www.barofintegrity.us)
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To: Calpernia

Actually, these people were harvesting. Meaning, they did not chose to donate.<<<<

You are correct.

People like these criminals, wind up keeping people from agreeing to donate.

I lost a son in law, who was waiting for a liver, that did not come in time.


28 posted on 09/05/2008 8:43:48 AM PDT by nw_arizona_granny ( http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1990507/posts?page=451 SURVIVAL, RECIPES, GARDENS, & INFO)
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To: nw_arizona_granny

I lost a niece that way too. I have no problem with donations. But I have a big problem with the state assuming ownership of our organs and decisions.


29 posted on 09/05/2008 8:46:26 AM PDT by Calpernia (Hunters Rangers - Raising the Bar of Integrity http://www.barofintegrity.us)
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To: Calpernia

Well, folks, if pederasty is ‘gay’, as many here assure us, why can’t necrophilia be ‘merry’?


30 posted on 09/05/2008 8:51:14 AM PDT by Revolting cat! (Are you ready to pray for Teddy?)
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To: Calpernia; nw_arizona_granny

Shivers, it’s so gruesome.


31 posted on 09/05/2008 2:07:44 PM PDT by Velveeta
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To: Calpernia

Ashes of 22 individuals found in barn
Valley Press on | Friday, September 5, 2008 | Daisy Ratzlaff
Posted on 09/05/2008 11:36:35 AM PDT by BenLurkin
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2075485/posts


32 posted on 09/05/2008 10:59:58 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/_______Profile hasn't been updated since Friday, May 30, 2008)
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To: Calpernia

I have no problem with donations. But I have a big problem with the state assuming ownership of our organs and decisions.<<<

You know that I am in agreement with you.

The state can stay out of my life and I will mess it up, on my own ways.

This year, I have been listening to the police scanners in the Western states, it amazes me what people report to the Police and the services that they ask for.

Several calls, asking for Police to come and give a 6 & 8 year old children pills. “Jr. won’t take his medicine, please send an Officer”........insanity is alive and well.


33 posted on 09/06/2008 1:45:46 PM PDT by nw_arizona_granny ( http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1990507/posts?page=451 SURVIVAL, RECIPES, GARDENS, & INFO)
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