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The Real Body Snatchers

An anonymous reader writes "The BBC are reporting on a grisly trade lying behind the booming business for replacement body parts in medical procedures. Many unscrupulous "dealers" will procure body parts from anyone willing to deal them — e.g., undertakers, medics — and will process them for resale onto legitimate companies. Apparently a fully processed cadaver can fetch up to $250,000. Now, who says I'm worth more alive than dead?"

23 of 280 comments (clear)

  1. Attention teenage single mothers by Malevolent+Tester · · Score: 5, Funny

    Want to own your own home instead of leeching one off the taxpayer? Apply inside. $250,000 could be yours.

    --
    If you haven't made a developer cry, you've wasted a day.
  2. Hmmm by joaommp · · Score: 2, Funny

    "Now, who says I'm worth more alive than dead?"

    It depends... do you know the secret combination to a safe holding multibilion dollar amounts and are susceptible of talking under... preemptive advice?

  3. Re:When does the government get involved? by polar+red · · Score: 4, Funny

    over my dead body !

    --
    Yes, I'm left. You have a problem with that?
  4. Hmm by TheLink · · Score: 3, Funny

    How much is my left little finger worth?

    Don't get the wrong idea, I'm quite attached to it.

    So you'll have to prise it from my cold dead hands (or over my dead body)...

    Oh wait...

    --
  5. They are trading bears? by zappepcs · · Score: 4, Funny

    "The BBC are reporting on a grisly trade lying behind the booming business for replacement body parts in medical procedures. According to Colbert, the number one threat to America is BEARS! These biological terrorists need to be stopped before the American Dollar is ruined.... oh wait
  6. Re:Niven was right. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    How would we call illegal leg traders? Legleggers?

  7. George Carlin was right, someonelse too by MrShaggy · · Score: 3, Funny

    'Thats why I dont sign my doner card. When you get into an accident and the abulance comes, and they see you have that card. Do you honestly think they are there to help you?? Hell no, they are looking for spare parts.' Or even better. knock.knock: Door opens. "Yes, can I help you??" 'Are yu such and such' 'Yes I am'. "We're here for you liver." ;)

    --
    I have mod points and I am not afraid to use them.
  8. I can beat that by elrous0 · · Score: 2, Funny

    I've got a middle finger that I would gladly give George W. Bush for free.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  9. Re:One future cadaver for sale, liver not included by elrous0 · · Score: 2, Funny

    It would have to make you a little nervous. But, in practice, it's very unlikely that a company would ever risk a major go-to-jail-for-a-very-long-time-loose-everything scandal just to harvest a few bodies a little early. They would just adjust their rates accordingly.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  10. Sure sure... by keineobachtubersie · · Score: 3, Funny

    "My cousin went to school with a guy that this happened to."

    Are you sure it wasn't your cousin's mother's sister's uncle?

    1. Re:Sure sure... by sm62704 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Are you sure it wasn't your cousin's mother's sister's uncle?

      He's from Arkansas, it's the same guy! ;)

      --
      mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
  11. Shhhh..... by cdr_data · · Score: 3, Funny

    PLEASE don't tell my wife!

  12. Oblig. Futurama by Dachannien · · Score: 4, Funny

    Fry: Now that you mention it, I do have trouble breathing underwater sometimes. I'll take the gills.
    Shady organ dealer: Yes, gills. Then, uh, you don't need lungs anymore, is right?
    Fry: Can't imagine why I would.
    Shady organ dealer: Lie down on table. I take lungs now, gills come next week.

  13. Re:You think it's no big deal by kalirion · · Score: 4, Funny

    You forgot to mention that he woke up in a tub full of ice.

  14. The Value of Taco's Body by airship · · Score: 2, Funny

    Has anyone EVER asserted that Taco was worth more than a quarter of a million? Anyone? Anyone?

    I didn't think so.

    --
    Serving your airship needs since 1995.
  15. Re:I don't get the big deal.... by Applekid · · Score: 4, Funny

    Thankfully, I've spent many years building a resistance to such attacks by being grossly overweight with liver disease, diabetes, hypertension, and hyperactive sweat glands.

    --
    More Twoson than Cupertino
  16. Oh, thanks a lot... by the_fat_kid · · Score: 3, Funny

    Now I have to change my will.

    Let's see:
    Organ donor card? check.
    Sunday NY times? check.
    1994 jeep cherokee? check.
    road map of my nations capitol with dump sites marked? check.

    All right, I'm ready for the end, when it comes.

    "I'm not affraid of dieing. Ijust don't want to be there when it happens."

    --
    -- Sig under construction...
  17. They can have my body by maroberts · · Score: 3, Funny

    As long as my head can be kept alive in a jar....

    --

    Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
    Karma: Chameleon

  18. Re:You think it's no big deal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    People are laughing, but this one was reported in mainstream news

    http://www.theonion.com/content/video/anonymous_philanthropist_donates

  19. Re:You think it's no big deal by eln · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oh man, tell me about it. My aunt's second cousin's dog's sister's father's owner's grandmother's great grand-niece's former roomate was kidnapped by aliens, but then the aliens were spaceship-jacked by a bunch of street thugs before they could even get the anal probe in all the way. She was taken to a secluded shack in Montana where Jimmy Hoffa came out with a rusty scalpel and a copy of "Home Surgery for Dummies". Luckily, a Sasquatch riding on a Chupacabra broke in just in the nick of time and took her off to his treehouse high up in the Rockies. After a few months, though, he kicked her out because apparently she was supposed to be paying half of the rent or something, and she ended up wandering around the forest for several days until she passed out. Anyway, she came to in a back-alley surgery, and there was a big guy in dirty scrubs negotiating with the zombie Jeffrey Dahmer over who got what part of her body. Luckily, she managed to break free, but as soon as she got out the door she was picked up by federal agents who flew her off to Area 51 in a black helicopter and locked her in a closet with some freaky squid looking thing from some planet in the vicinity of Alpha Centauri (or so he claimed). He was just setting out the silverware so he could devour her in a more civilized fashion when a bunch of those weird guys who like to look at Area 51 all day with binoculars in order to find government conspiracies broke in and whisked her off. Unfortunately, they were short on meth and had no cash, but they did have the phone number for the Harvard Medical School, so they knocked her out, and she came to a few days later in the middle of the 405 freeway in a tub of ice.

    Anyway, to make a long story short, she was missing three fingers, her left kneecap, three and a half yards of small intestine, three quarters of her right lung, and her spleen. Really scary stuff.

  20. Re:I don't get the big deal.... by flyingsquid · · Score: 4, Funny
    And since money's involved, who's to say the parts they're selling are transplant quality.

    Transplant quality? Of course it's transplant quality! Here at Honest Ed's Used Body Parts, all our parts are transplant quality! Take this pelvis for instance, almost good as new. Belonged to a little old lady who only used it to walk to church on Sundays. What? Yeah, I suppose that could be a little osteoporosis there, but I'll have the boys in the shop fix that right up. Put a couple of titanium pins in and it's good as new. Listen, if it's such a big problem, I can even throw in a couple of ears to sweeten the deal, maybe a lung.

  21. Re:I don't get the big deal.... by moeinvt · · Score: 2, Funny

    ". . .the issue is that these folks were simply taking the parts, or the entire body, without the permission of either the deceased or their families . . "

    I'm sure they asked the deceased, and hearing no objection, decided to sell the body parts.

  22. Over my dead body!!! by AnomaliesAndrew · · Score: 2, Funny

    Think I'll let somebody sell my organs without giving me a fair cut of the profits?

    OVER MY DEAD BODY!!!

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    Move all sig!