Posted on: December 12, 2024, 12:51h.
Last updated on: December 12, 2024, 01:12h.
In a Las Vegas strip mall, next to a tattoo parlor, a former Las Vegas chiropractor with a revoked license ran a business buying and selling human cadavers for years. According to NBC News, his now-bankrupt body business faces accusations of mishandling human remains.
In 2014, Obteen Nassiri lost his chiropractor’s license for professional misconduct, including allegations that he defrauded insurance companies out of millions.
In need of a new career, he entered the underregulated human body trade. His Med Ed Labs bought and leased corpses from funeral homes and medical schools, then sold and leased them for a profit for training and medical research.
Body Moving
Selling organs for transplants is illegal in the US. However, no laws prohibit selling human remains for education or research.
In addition, no formal education, state certification or professional license is required to enter the field. Indeed, according to NBC, Nassiri formed Med Ed Labs in 2015 with his brother-in-law, whose background is in construction, listed as sole owner.
The troubles began for Med Ed in October 2021, when KING-TV/Portland investigated how the body of David Saunders, a 98-year-old Army veteran who died from COVID complications, ended up the subject of a pay-per-view dissection at the Oddities and Curiosities Expo in the Oregon city.
“It’s horrible what has happened to my husband,” Saunders’ widow told NBC News at the time. “I only consented to body donations for scientific purposes. That’s the way my husband wanted it. To say the least, I’m upset.”
In a statement posted to its website in 2021, Med Ed Labs claimed it had “no prior” knowledge that Death Science, the company that leased Saunders’ body, would use it for that purpose. (Death Science refuted that claim, stating that it had informed Nassiri of its plans.)
When that scandal made headlines, officials with the University of North Texas Health Science Center, a Med Ed supplier, demanded the return of all remains it had leased to Med Ed. But, in an email from the institution obtained by NBC, the university complained that Med Ed failed to return nine pairs of human feet.
Body Politics
While funeral directors can be disciplined for mishandling bodies, most states maintain no standards of conduct for body brokers (officially known as “nontransplant tissue banks”).
In 2019, Nevada passed a law giving the State Board of Health the authority to regulate these businesses. Five years later, the agency is still drafting proposed standards.
According to Nassiri, Med Labs is no longer in business. It filed for bankruptcy in March. (According to NBC, this was days before a 2020 lawsuit brought by Allstate Insurance — alleging that Nassiri used Med Ed’s corporate accounts for personal expenses — was set to go to trial.)
NBC’s investigation uncovered a new body broker business, Surgical & Medical Training Services, registered at Med Ed Labs’ former Las Vegas address. Though the new business isn’t registered in Nassiri’s name, his brother’s name is listed on the documents.
In interviews, Nassiri has denied any wrongdoing, and he hasn’t been charged with any crimes.
