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Body Brokers: Inside America's Underground Trade in Human Remains
Body Brokers is an audacious, disturbing, and compellingly written investigative exposé of a little known aspect of the “death care” the lucrative business of procuring, buying, and selling human cadavers and body parts.
Every year human corpses meant for anatomy classes, burial, or cremation find their way into the hands of a shadowy group of entrepreneurs who profit by buying and selling human remains. While the government has controls on organs and tissue meant for transplantation, these “body brokers” capitalize on the myriad other uses for dead bodies that receive no federal oversight commercial seminars to introduce new medical gadgetry; medical research studies and training courses; and U.S. Army land-mine explosion tests. A single corpse used for these purposes can generate up to $10,000.
As journalist Annie Cheney found while reporting on this subject over the course of three years, when there’s that much money to be made with no federal regulation, there are all sorts of shady (and fascinating) characters who are willing to employ questionable practices—from deception and outright theft -- to acquire, market, and distribute human bodies and parts. In Michigan and New York she discovers funeral directors who buy corpses from medical schools and supply the parts to surgical equipment companies and associations of surgeons. In California, she meets a crematorium owner who sold the body parts of people he was supposed to cremate, generating hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits. In Florida, she attends a medical conference in a luxury hotel, where fresh torsos are delivered in large coolers and displayed on gurneys in a room normally used for banquets. “That torso that you’re living in right now is just flesh and bones. To me, it’s a product,” says the New Jersey-based broker presiding over the torsos. Tracing the origins of body brokering from the “resurrectionists” of the 19th century to the entrepreneurs of today, Cheney chronicles how demand for cadavers has long driven unscrupulous funeral home, crematorium and medical school personnel to treat human bodies as commodities.
Gripping, often chilling, and sure to cause a reexamination of the American way of death, Body Brokers is a captivating work of first-person reportage.
Every year human corpses meant for anatomy classes, burial, or cremation find their way into the hands of a shadowy group of entrepreneurs who profit by buying and selling human remains. While the government has controls on organs and tissue meant for transplantation, these “body brokers” capitalize on the myriad other uses for dead bodies that receive no federal oversight commercial seminars to introduce new medical gadgetry; medical research studies and training courses; and U.S. Army land-mine explosion tests. A single corpse used for these purposes can generate up to $10,000.
As journalist Annie Cheney found while reporting on this subject over the course of three years, when there’s that much money to be made with no federal regulation, there are all sorts of shady (and fascinating) characters who are willing to employ questionable practices—from deception and outright theft -- to acquire, market, and distribute human bodies and parts. In Michigan and New York she discovers funeral directors who buy corpses from medical schools and supply the parts to surgical equipment companies and associations of surgeons. In California, she meets a crematorium owner who sold the body parts of people he was supposed to cremate, generating hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits. In Florida, she attends a medical conference in a luxury hotel, where fresh torsos are delivered in large coolers and displayed on gurneys in a room normally used for banquets. “That torso that you’re living in right now is just flesh and bones. To me, it’s a product,” says the New Jersey-based broker presiding over the torsos. Tracing the origins of body brokering from the “resurrectionists” of the 19th century to the entrepreneurs of today, Cheney chronicles how demand for cadavers has long driven unscrupulous funeral home, crematorium and medical school personnel to treat human bodies as commodities.
Gripping, often chilling, and sure to cause a reexamination of the American way of death, Body Brokers is a captivating work of first-person reportage.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
18 people are currently reading
579 people want to read
About the author
Annie Cheney
6 booksAnnie Cheney’s magazine work has appeared in Harper’s and My Generation. Her Harper’s article that is the basis of this book was awarded the 2005 Deadline Club Award for Best Feature Reporting by the Society of Professional Journalists. She has also contributed stories to numerous public radio shows, including NPR’s All Things Considered. She lives in New York City.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
November 19, 2008
I read the article in Harper's Bazaar that resulted in this book- I have to say that I found the article more compelling and it seemed as is the author was stretching the story pretty thin- It's an expose on the little-known trade of human body parts in the USA that are used to market medical devices and techniques through training seminars. As the product of a medical family (and once very accustomed to opening the fridge to see if there was anything good to eat but being confronted by some deceased person's eyes staring back at me from a tall thin bottle not unlike the ones they sell fancy olives and cocktail onions in that my dad had removed (post-mortem) to use for tissue grafts or corneal transplants and hadn't yet gotten around to taking to the office) I wasn't as outraged at the use of these body parts for training purposes as I was that they are often taken for these purposes without consent or knowledge of the family members and that the suppliers are making gross (pun intended) profits from the sales. The most interesting part of the book, in my humble opinion, was the middle section that summarized the history of the body trade in England and the United States. I was already familiar with the grave robbing that went on in England and, of course, Mssrs. Burke and Hare of Edinburgh who found it was easier just to murder people and be assured of a corpse in good condition rather than going to the trouble of digging up graves under cover of night, only to find that the body was too far gone to be of use. What was completely new to me was the history of the same acts in our own land- surprisingly, acording to the author, grave robbing was still a means of supplying bodies for medical research in the US even as late as the 1920s.
The book was interesting, fairly gruesome in its details (thankfully, NO photos!) and a quick read but from a literary or journalistic standpoint, I don't think that it stands out; if only because of the subject matter.
The book was interesting, fairly gruesome in its details (thankfully, NO photos!) and a quick read but from a literary or journalistic standpoint, I don't think that it stands out; if only because of the subject matter.
April 21, 2012
This book reminds me a lot of The Immoral Life of Henrietta Lacks - which I loved. It takes the disgusting process of brokering human body parts and weaves a really good non-fiction story. It reveals how this business has prospered from the grave robbers of the 1800's right up to the current problems as late as 2006. This book will make you look twice at the funeral, creamation, death process. Beware! 4 stars
March 5, 2008
This book is like a horrible car crash you can't turn away from despite the carnage. The subject matter was disturbing yet I read this cover to cover, only putting it down to sleep.
July 3, 2008
A dangerous read if you were planning on being cremated, autopsied, or donating your body to science.
December 27, 2012
This book was incredible, but I'm too tired to write a decent review so will plan on doing that tomorrow. All I have to say now is it is fascinating, gruesome, disheartening, and a "must read".
November 3, 2020
I've been reading a lot about bodies, lately. How they decay, how they can go wrong, the signs and hints left behind on skeletons of what happened in their lives. Body Brokers is a different sort of body book, far more about greed and politics than the fact of a body. The body and the rot are incidental -- to the brokers they are commodities, first and foremost. I'm glad I read this book after all the others. I felt I understood the context a little better, and I'd already mostly gotten over my disgust reflex, although that was challenged by some of the dismemberment descriptions.
This book came out in the early 2000s, and like all older books that were groundbreaking at the time, I end of wondering how things have developed since then. Are tissue banks still as unregulated? Is the volume of trade in illegally obtained bodies at the same level?
The most interesting thing about this book was the ethical questions it made me ask myself. It makes you push past the inherent disgust reaction of crimes to do with bodies. When brokers were charged, "desecration of a corpse" was often one of the crimes, but the same dismemberment would not be desecration if consent had been given. The line that's sticking with me most, and this is a paraphrase, is that people don't donate things with the intention that someone else will make a profit. And body brokers make a huge profit.
It's a short read, and interesting. I enjoyed it.
This book came out in the early 2000s, and like all older books that were groundbreaking at the time, I end of wondering how things have developed since then. Are tissue banks still as unregulated? Is the volume of trade in illegally obtained bodies at the same level?
The most interesting thing about this book was the ethical questions it made me ask myself. It makes you push past the inherent disgust reaction of crimes to do with bodies. When brokers were charged, "desecration of a corpse" was often one of the crimes, but the same dismemberment would not be desecration if consent had been given. The line that's sticking with me most, and this is a paraphrase, is that people don't donate things with the intention that someone else will make a profit. And body brokers make a huge profit.
It's a short read, and interesting. I enjoyed it.
September 13, 2017
Honey, I wish I can scrub my brain and rid them of the nasty that is body brokers. They sound like scumbags who only see the money and dress up their acts with flimsy justifications that it's all noble. And begrudgingly, I have to admit that they do have a point: a lot of people really don't know where their remains really go nowadays. That's how they can posthumously get exploited, shipped into another state through UPS or FedEx, and dehumanized into being a "product" for their "trade." Ugh.
My thanks to Cheney for doing the extensive research for this book. Even if I was throughly grossed out by the first ten pages. It definitely made me consider putting a thorough note about the handling of my carcass in my will. I would like to see an updated version of this now that ten years have passed from this book's publication.
My thanks to Cheney for doing the extensive research for this book. Even if I was throughly grossed out by the first ten pages. It definitely made me consider putting a thorough note about the handling of my carcass in my will. I would like to see an updated version of this now that ten years have passed from this book's publication.
May 23, 2022
I like reading books about interesting medical topics and the Body Brokers is one of these books. I had no idea that funeral homes can break down a body for individual parts and sell them to Brokers who in turn sell the parts to surgical seminars, learning institutes and other places. The remaining part of the body is cremated then given back to the family who hasn't a clue as to what happened to their persons body. At times the ashes are mixed together and taken out of a barrel to be given to the family.
It seems there is a lot of money to be made by being a body broker and very little regulation. It really is sketchy and it makes me wonder when my time comes if I will be rendered for pieces or if I will actually be returned whole to my family. Just another thing to think about.
It seems there is a lot of money to be made by being a body broker and very little regulation. It really is sketchy and it makes me wonder when my time comes if I will be rendered for pieces or if I will actually be returned whole to my family. Just another thing to think about.
February 23, 2024
The book starts with a narrative voice to tell the true story of a rogue funeral home. This first section of the book is compelling. However the author then goes into already well recounted events of body snatching before going back to contemporary events. These sections are far less engaging. The last third of the book takes it from 4 stars to two. The reporting was poorly structured and can’t seem to find a consistent point to follow, unlike the first part.
November 10, 2025
Incredible insights into a business that you would never expect to thrive as much as it does. And just knowing this is from the 90-00s makes you think about how much more has been going on since this was published. And there's definitely no way anything has been changed since even after any of these scandals come to light.
The writing is amazing and very approachable for any readers. I loved this book and will definitely recommend to anyone interested in morbid nonfiction!
The writing is amazing and very approachable for any readers. I loved this book and will definitely recommend to anyone interested in morbid nonfiction!
September 4, 2017
Highly informational about the underground trade in a highly profitable commodity, my body. Book got a little tedious and detailed in many places with regards to names and dates which got really confusing. I just skipped over them and kept going. Good information to read about and store in the back of your mind for idle party chitchat.
August 18, 2019
Eye opening and disturbing - this book is having me rethink leaving my body to science! I'd almost rather be eaten by a shark or lion!
All joking aside, though, the issue of 'donating' ones remains is one that people need to research a lot more closely if they are thinking about doing so.
All joking aside, though, the issue of 'donating' ones remains is one that people need to research a lot more closely if they are thinking about doing so.
April 22, 2025
I like non-fiction but my mind does wander if too much factual information is being thrown at me in a boring delivery method. The first half of this book had a better approach than the last half did. This may have taken me four months to read but I did find it to be quite fascinating.
December 10, 2017
Very enlightening and educational peek into what can truly occur when making the decision of how to handle after life decisions.....A must read while living.....
May 5, 2018
Very disturbing and very informative. Now I don’t know what to do with my body when I die!
April 13, 2020
Read for a true crime podcast. Appreciated the journalist style.
December 13, 2023
An interesting read diving deep into the world of the trade of human remains.
February 6, 2024
This was so wild to read about, especially as someone about to go to med school
December 14, 2024
Wow quite interesting and a wild ride. I'd like to see a follow up book to this
November 7, 2016
1. My overall takeaway: Yes, there needs to be more regulations for corpses. Especially stories like Michael Brown and everyone who gets the bodies without family consent. But, if families donate the bodies to science and the bodies go to science no matter how they get there, who cares? You are dead. Your body would otherwise be rotting in the ground becoming food for bugs and worms. If you can help doctors with their trade and that same doctor saves the life of a loved one of the body they are working on, the corpse has done its job.
2. I learned that grave robbers are called ghouls. 3. I learned that surgery comes from the Greek word cheirourgia meaning hand work.
4. Loved the quote by Epictetus, "You are a little soul carrying around a corpse."
5. Could you imagine finding freezers full of dead bodies like they did in Michael Brown's attic? And then later when the freezers smelled so bad?
6. This makes me want to go to the local funeral home and start asking questions.
7. Michael Brown's quote is pretty accurate, "There's no dignity in death...Put me in a boat. Light it with fuel and send me off like the Vikings."
8. The quote on Michael Brown's funeral home door. Oh geeze. "REMEMBER: Behind these doors is the most sacred room in the building. It is where loved ones come to be prepared for the most difficult event in a family's life. Those that work behind these doors pledge to each family a never-ending commitment of respect and service to those that place their trust in us." And then, "Every job is a self-portrait of the person who does it. Autograph your work with excellence."
9. One thing I didn't like about the book is that it never really seemed to circle back to Michael Brown. It sort of took on less of a narrative and talked more about history later in the book.
10. The author, Annie Cheney, talked about being in her hotel room, "After I got out of the bathtub, a feeling akin to defiance compelled me to call room service and order a rare hamburger. When it arrived, I sat down on the bed and ate the bloody meat in my underwear." Same, girl. A woman after my own heart.
11. I found the history interesting when it talked about unclaimed bodies being used for surgeons to practice on. (1830s)
12. HAVE to read the book Bones in the Basement: Post-Mortem Racism in Nineteenth Century Medical Training.
13. Grave torpedoes and mortsafes to keep grave robbers from digging up bodies. Crazy.
14. That story of Dr. Henri Le Caron (alias Dr. Charles O. Morton) where he had barrels of specimens being shipped and labeling them pickles to hide the fact that they were bodies. Omg. That's how they preserved some bodies. They would put salt and vinegar on them to keep them from smelling. So the doctor's specimens were literally pickles.
15. The book said that many people wouldn't think of selling a gift that someone gives them. They were speaking in regards to selling donated bodies. My thoughts, though, are that if you give someone a gift, it is no longer yours to care about. They can do whatever they want with the gift. Don't give something to someone if you still want a say on what happens to it.
16. The maddest I got in the book is when the people were dying because of bad donated tissue. Check the freaking stuff before you put it into another human.
17. This book along with Death's Acre by William M. Bass and Stiff by Mary Roach make me want to donate my body to science. Maybe I should be very specific and legal about it though.
18. Loved the story of the guys who were murdering people and selling them to doctors. Love in that it's an awesome story. Not that they were murdering people.
2. I learned that grave robbers are called ghouls. 3. I learned that surgery comes from the Greek word cheirourgia meaning hand work.
4. Loved the quote by Epictetus, "You are a little soul carrying around a corpse."
5. Could you imagine finding freezers full of dead bodies like they did in Michael Brown's attic? And then later when the freezers smelled so bad?
6. This makes me want to go to the local funeral home and start asking questions.
7. Michael Brown's quote is pretty accurate, "There's no dignity in death...Put me in a boat. Light it with fuel and send me off like the Vikings."
8. The quote on Michael Brown's funeral home door. Oh geeze. "REMEMBER: Behind these doors is the most sacred room in the building. It is where loved ones come to be prepared for the most difficult event in a family's life. Those that work behind these doors pledge to each family a never-ending commitment of respect and service to those that place their trust in us." And then, "Every job is a self-portrait of the person who does it. Autograph your work with excellence."
9. One thing I didn't like about the book is that it never really seemed to circle back to Michael Brown. It sort of took on less of a narrative and talked more about history later in the book.
10. The author, Annie Cheney, talked about being in her hotel room, "After I got out of the bathtub, a feeling akin to defiance compelled me to call room service and order a rare hamburger. When it arrived, I sat down on the bed and ate the bloody meat in my underwear." Same, girl. A woman after my own heart.
11. I found the history interesting when it talked about unclaimed bodies being used for surgeons to practice on. (1830s)
12. HAVE to read the book Bones in the Basement: Post-Mortem Racism in Nineteenth Century Medical Training.
13. Grave torpedoes and mortsafes to keep grave robbers from digging up bodies. Crazy.
14. That story of Dr. Henri Le Caron (alias Dr. Charles O. Morton) where he had barrels of specimens being shipped and labeling them pickles to hide the fact that they were bodies. Omg. That's how they preserved some bodies. They would put salt and vinegar on them to keep them from smelling. So the doctor's specimens were literally pickles.
15. The book said that many people wouldn't think of selling a gift that someone gives them. They were speaking in regards to selling donated bodies. My thoughts, though, are that if you give someone a gift, it is no longer yours to care about. They can do whatever they want with the gift. Don't give something to someone if you still want a say on what happens to it.
16. The maddest I got in the book is when the people were dying because of bad donated tissue. Check the freaking stuff before you put it into another human.
17. This book along with Death's Acre by William M. Bass and Stiff by Mary Roach make me want to donate my body to science. Maybe I should be very specific and legal about it though.
18. Loved the story of the guys who were murdering people and selling them to doctors. Love in that it's an awesome story. Not that they were murdering people.
May 21, 2014
It’s hard to imagine subject matter more cringe-worthy than the for-profit tissue and body business. Perhaps this explains the relative obscurity of Annie Cheney’s Body Brokers: Inside America’s Underground Trade in Human Remains, a muckraking exposé on this for-profit, shockingly lucrative industry. Upon the book’s release, publications around the country gave it generally favorable reviews, and predicted that it should blow the lid off of this subject. But it never happened. Body Brokers is a slim book at 193 pages, expanded from a piece Cheney wrote for Harper’s, perhaps the first significant investigation into this issue. Since then, it has also been the last.
This is not for lack of talent on Cheney’s part. If a bit over-wrought at times, Body Brokers is engaging, fast-paced, and informative without being didactic. Most readers will be surprised that for-profit companies facilitate a large part of a non-profit tissue or body donation. And these companies make an, erm, killing off of them. When a person agrees to donate their body or tissue following their death, this material is distributed to medical supply companies and universities around the country.
[Continued]
Full SevenPonds review:
http://blog.sevenponds.com/lending-in...
This is not for lack of talent on Cheney’s part. If a bit over-wrought at times, Body Brokers is engaging, fast-paced, and informative without being didactic. Most readers will be surprised that for-profit companies facilitate a large part of a non-profit tissue or body donation. And these companies make an, erm, killing off of them. When a person agrees to donate their body or tissue following their death, this material is distributed to medical supply companies and universities around the country.
[Continued]
Full SevenPonds review:
http://blog.sevenponds.com/lending-in...
December 23, 2011
Every family, at one time or another goes through the process of losing a loved one, along with the grieving process, you would hope that your loved one would be treated with respect and dignity....not so.
In the U.S at least, there is a thriving industry for body parts and whole corpses or cadavers.
In her book 'Body Brokers', Investigative journalist Annie Cheney, exposes the inhuman practices of stealing parts of bodies and selling them to brokers who in turn sell them for the purposes of surgical experiments and demonstrations of procedures at special seminars.
In the book, there are interviews with people who are wondering where the remains and ashes of their loved ones have gone. What is more individual body parts have a monetary value and go to the highest bidder. It is anybodies guess as to other countries that in dulge in these reprehensible practices, I know China is one.
In the U.S at least, there is a thriving industry for body parts and whole corpses or cadavers.
In her book 'Body Brokers', Investigative journalist Annie Cheney, exposes the inhuman practices of stealing parts of bodies and selling them to brokers who in turn sell them for the purposes of surgical experiments and demonstrations of procedures at special seminars.
In the book, there are interviews with people who are wondering where the remains and ashes of their loved ones have gone. What is more individual body parts have a monetary value and go to the highest bidder. It is anybodies guess as to other countries that in dulge in these reprehensible practices, I know China is one.
August 25, 2008
Cheney's account of brokers stealing morgue cadavers slated for cremation and cutting them up for sale like so many pieces of meat makes a lie of the whole facade of benevolent, scientific, medical altruism in America.
We, in short, have reached the inevitable conclusion of Capitalism envisioned by Debord; a world where everybody, in the end, has been turned into a commodity, to be bought, packaged, and sold. The opening scene of a seminar in the banquet room of a swanky resort hotel in Florida (surgeons hunched over duck-taped torsos on carts arranged before an beautiful ocean view) is as best a summation of the whole mess-up state of affairs. A repulsive/irresistible car crash of a book.
We, in short, have reached the inevitable conclusion of Capitalism envisioned by Debord; a world where everybody, in the end, has been turned into a commodity, to be bought, packaged, and sold. The opening scene of a seminar in the banquet room of a swanky resort hotel in Florida (surgeons hunched over duck-taped torsos on carts arranged before an beautiful ocean view) is as best a summation of the whole mess-up state of affairs. A repulsive/irresistible car crash of a book.
April 17, 2016
This was in interesting read and one of the few books out there on this subject. It did give some intriguing glimpse into the world but it feels like it just grazes the surface of the subject. It doesn't have alot of detailed information and focuses on the sensationalized cases without going in depth about the trade itself beyond the flagrant abuses. The other thing that bothered me is for a non-fiction book it at times read like a fiction book. Detailed descriptions of people as if they are a character in a romance novel left me with a jarring sense of what I was actually reading.
November 16, 2016
The book "Body Brokers" By Annie Cheney is an amazing book if your looking for gruesome descriptions of the process of brokering human body parts that some how turns into a good entertaining non-fiction book. Its a pretty dangerous read if your planning on being cremated, autopsied, or donating your body for science purposes. The book talks about how America is thriving industry for body parts. Over all this book is a "must read" and makes look twice at funeral, cremation and the whole death process. Great book! 4 stars
May 1, 2007
This books gives an amazing inside perspective on donating your body to science. It gives some great information on the underground trade in human remains (even if you don't intend to donate your body). It tells you how hospitals, morgues, and mortuaries get involved in the black market of body parts.
Definately a great read if you have considered donating your body. As for me, I want to be cremated so I can avoid these weird things- plus, I don't really want to be embalmed.
Definately a great read if you have considered donating your body. As for me, I want to be cremated so I can avoid these weird things- plus, I don't really want to be embalmed.
October 12, 2007
This work of non-fiction is a quick read, but intensely gruesome and horrifying. It will make you look at human death and what happens to bodies afterwards in a whole new light. I found myself having to take breaks for a few deep breaths. It would make one heck of a horror film, and all the more horrible because it's true.
January 12, 2012
This book will really give you the creeps. It is scary to think of what can be going on right under your nose. I know that it doesn't happen everywhere, and Cheney makes it quite clear that not all Funeral Homes, Universities, Hospitals and other institutions don't treat the deceased like this, but just knowing that some are willing to sell your loved ones is scary.
February 11, 2012
An exposé on the not-so-legal market of bodies and body parts. It turns out there are people selling arms and legs, well, for an arm and a leg, all without the consent of the former owners. However, it'd be a pity if this book stopped people from donating their bodies and/or organs, as there are never enough to meet the demand.
May 26, 2014
In Body Brokers, Annie Cheney exposes the shadowy world of tissue procurement organizations and the various different people that work within the industry. I really enjoyed this book; it was interesting, well written, and Cheney provides a logical and well structured argument. A must read for anyone planning on donating their body to science.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews