Venezuelan Migrant’s Body Used for Science—Her Family Had No Idea
Migrants fleeing their countries to the southern border of the United States face mounting dangers on the journey. They range from exploitation to illness and trafficking. In the face of these dangers, migrants risk it all to make it to the country. The ultimate goal is to improve the lives of their families.
That is what Aurimar Iturriago Villegas did when she left Venezuela to come to the U.S. However, her murder would lead to atrocious action that would desecrate her body without her family’s knowledge.
Aurimar Iturriago Villegas’ family didn’t know authorities donated her body
Iturriago Villegas made the thousands-mile journey from Venezuela to the United States and safely crossed in September 2022. From there, she made her way to Dallas looking for work. She wanted to bring her family back in Venezuela out of poverty. However, that dream was cut short. She was shot and killed in a road rage accident just months after arriving in the U.S.
Heartbroken, her mother began the process of getting her daughter’s body home. Two years passed before she learned that authorities donated her daughter’s body to science without her knowledge or consent. Iturriago Villegas’ family, like many others, learned about their loved one’s body’s whereabouts after an investigative report from NBC News and Noticias Telemundo.
The investigation found that since 2019, Dallas and Tarrant counties have sent 2,350 unclaimed bodies to the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth. Researchers used them through the university’s Willed Body Program. From there, they processed it for viability in medical and science research. Bodies that aren’t viable are cremated. Similarly, training doctors, medical technology companies, or product development companies often use these corpses.
“It’s a very painful thing,” Arelis Coromoto Villegas, Aurimar’s mother, told NBC News in Spanish. “She’s not a little animal to be butchered, to be cut up.”
Researchers used Aurimar’s body for multiple purposes. They cut up her body and sold it piece by piece. Every part of her body the bullet didn’t damage was marked for sale for medical research. Her family had no idea.
The problematic program that mutilates bodies might currently be under suspension, but not for good
After the reports uncovered the large number of bodies sent without familial consent, the backlash was swift. Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare threatened UNT Health Science Center, county staff, and the Tarrant County Medical Examiner with legal action if necessary to end the practice.
Not only did the two entities end their partnership. UNT Health Science Center announced that it would suspend the Willed Body Program until there is a full investigation into the matter and seek external consulting on how to move forward. According to the UNT Health Science Center website, the program is still temporarily under suspension. However, it will “honor anatomical gifts registered with the program prior to Sept. 13, 2024.”
