It's a good thing a local reporter looked into this event on October 17th
Man donated his body to science; company sold $500 tickets to his dissection
The widow learned of the dissection from a news reporter.
A Louisiana widow is left horrified at the news that her deceased husband was dissected in front of a live, paying audience after she donated his body to scientific research. . .
=========================================================================
Here's the original report:
Louisiana WWII vet's body dissected publicly, horrifying his widow who donated it for science
A recent photo of David Saunders and his wife, Elsie Saunders
(ProvidedPhoto)
"After a decorated Louisiana World War II veteran died from COVID-19 in August, his widow tried to carry out his wishes by donating his body to advance medical science, a cause she linked to his lifelong penchant for patriotism and service.
David Saunders, 98, died Aug. 24 after battling coronavirus in a Zachary hospital. He lived in Baker with his wife, Elsie Saunders, after leaving the New Orleans area following Hurricane Katrina. She told The Advocate on Wednesday that she tried to give his body to LSU, but the university refused the donation because he was COVID positive.
The potential dangers of dissecting someone publicly during a pandemic did nothing to stop a cohort of private companies from organizing an event where the cadaver was dismantled in a roomful of ticket holders.
Seattle television station
KING-TV first reported about the Oct. 17 dissection, at which VIP customers sat inches from the autopsy table while an anatomist spent hours carving into the corpse and removing various organs.
Elsie Saunders said she learned about the public dissection when a KING-TV reporter called her Tuesday. She said she's been receiving calls from media and family constantly since the report aired.
"As far as I'm concerned, it's horrible, unethical, and I just don't have the words to describe it," she said. "I have all this paperwork that says his body would be used for science — nothing about this commercialization of his death."
> The public dissection was linked to the Oddities and Curiosities Expo, which travels across the country and purports to attract "lovers of the strange, unusual and bizarre" with items including taxidermy, preserved specimens, horror-inspired artwork and creepy clothing.
However, when contacted for comment on Wednesday, company officials said they handled only the ticketing for the dissection and were not involved in organizing the event. They passed the buck to another company called Death Science.
"Death Science is the host and worked with a lab," Oddities and Curiosities officials said in an email. "This was absolutely NOT an entertainment style demonstration; it was an educational event."
[. . .] His widow said she hopes people will honor his life after hearing the story of his death.
The two were married for 10 years and had known each other more than six decades.
Death Science founder Jeremy Ciliberto said in an emailed statement Wednesday that Med Ed — which supplied the cadaver and the anatomist teaching the class — was fully aware the body would be used for an event whose attendees were "not exclusively medical students."
He told KING-TV he often paid upward of $10,000 for a cadaver.
