Seven charged with body harvesting in New York

By Chris Reiter

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Three funeral directors and four employees of a tissue harvesting firm were indicted in northern New York state on suspicion of harvesting bones and other body parts for medical procedures without permission, an official said on Thursday.

The funeral directors are accused of allowing four Biomedical Tissue Services employees to remove parts from 36 cadavers slated for cremation in exchange for $1,000 for each corpse. The body harvesters were also accused of forging consent forms.

"You're talking about extensive use of bone and tissue," Monroe County District Attorney Michael Green told Reuters.

The funeral directors were charged with body stealing, opening graves, unlawful dissection and scheming to defraud, Green said.

The body harvesters were charged with body stealing, opening graves, unlawful dissection, forgery, and falsifying business documents, he said.

Biomedical Tissue Services which closed in October 2005 after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration began an investigation into how it collected and screened body parts. The investigation later found deficiencies at the now-defunct Fort Lee, New Jersey, company.

A grand jury reached the indictments on May 4 and they were unsealed on Thursday in Rochester, about 330 miles northwest of New York City.

If convicted, the defendants could face up to 20 years in prison.