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Man's anguish after learning mother was sold to military and blown up

WARNING — GRAPHIC AND HIGHLY DISTRESSING CONTENT

When 73-year-old Dorris Stauffer died from Alzheimer’s disease in 2013, her son thought he was doing the right thing by donating her brain to science.

He later learned from a Reuters reporter that no part of his mother’s body was used for medical research. Instead it had been sold by the Biological Resource Centre (BRC) to the US military to test the damage caused by roadside bombs.

“She was then supposedly strapped in a chair on some sort of apparatus, and a detonation took place underneath her to basically kind of get an idea of what the human body goes through when a vehicle is hit by an IED (improvised explosive device),” Mr Stauffer told ABC15.

“There was actually wording on this paperwork about performing this stuff," he added, meaning the paperwork he signed when donating his mother’s body to what he thought was scientific research.

"Performing these medical tests that may involve explosions, and we said no. We checked the 'no' box on all that.”

A framed photo of the late Doris Stauffer.
A framed photo of the late Doris Stauffer. Her body was sold to the US military and detonated. Source: Reuters

Mr Stauffer is among 33 plaintiffs named in a civil lawsuit against Biological Resource Centre and its owner Stephen Gore. All had family members whose bodies were obtained through "false statements” by BRC and were sold for profit, they say. The group additionally claims the body parts were not stored, treated or disposed of with dignity or respect.

Mr Gore pleaded guilty to running an illegal enterprise in 2015 and received a suspended jail sentence. He was also ordered to pay $US121,000 ($A174,274) in restitution.

When the for-profit company was raided by the FBI in 2014, agents found a horror scene that has now been detailed in court documents, according to the Arizona Republic.

FBI agents spoke about finding a head that was sewn onto another person’s body, a bucket of limbs and a “cooler filled with male genitalia”.

Special agent Mark Cwynar recalled seeing body parts piled on top of each other with no apparent identification. He also testified to finding a "large torso with the head removed and replaced with a smaller head sewn together in a 'Frankenstein' manner”.

Jim Stauffer holds a photo of his late mother Doris Stauffer while posing for a photo in his home.
Jim Stauffer is one of 33 plaintiffs suing BRC. Source: Reuters

Documents obtained by Reuters showed that in addition to Mr Stauffer’s mother, at least 20 other bodies were also used in the blast experiments without permission of the donors or their relatives, which is a violation of US Army policy.

BRC sold donated bodies like Mrs Stauffer’s for $US5,893 each ($A8,549).

Army officials involved in the project said they never received the consent forms that donors or their families had signed.

Rather, the officials said they relied on assurances from BRC that families had agreed to let the bodies be used in such experiments.

BRC sold more than 20,000 parts from some 5,000 human bodies over a decade.

Lisa Stauffer holds a photo of her late mother-in-law Doris Stauffer, taken when she was 16 years old.
A photograph of Doris Stauffer when she was 16 years old. Source: Reuters

It’s been three years since Mr Stauffer learnt what really happened to his mother’s body but the anger is still raw.

"I don't see a pathway of ever getting past this," he told ABC15.

“Every time there’s a memory, every time there’s a photograph you look at, there’s this ugly thing that happened just right there staring right at you.”

The case is set for trial on October 21.

With Reuters

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