22. Cadavers - Part 1

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Economics of Everyday Things — "Cadavers: Part 1"

Host: Zachary Crockett (Freakonomics Network)
Release Date: March 16, 2026
Episode Theme:
This episode explores the fascinating and often overlooked journey of human cadavers from a historical taboo and criminal enterprise to a modern, sometimes-for-profit, scientific commodity. Host Zachary Crockett unpacks how cadavers are sourced, regulated (or not), and how their use underpins vast sectors of medical progress, education, and even for-profit business.

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Main Theme and Purpose

The episode traces the history and economics behind body donation, dissection, and the “cadaver trade.” Crockett interviews Susan Lawrence, a historian who studies cadavers, and Kaelyn Goodwin, VP of Marketing at ScienceCare (the world’s largest for-profit body donation company), to investigate how bodies go from donors to classrooms and laboratories—and examines the legal, ethical, and economic issues that arise in this unique market.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Ancient Roots and Social Taboos of Dissection

• Early Dissections as Punishment:
  • In the 14th century, human dissection was reserved as punishment for the worst criminals—viewed as especially abhorrent due to beliefs about resurrection.
    • Quote: “The only bodies available were the bodies of executed murderers or other felons... The idea that the body would be dismembered was particularly abhorrent.” — Susan Lawrence [03:38]
• Public Spectacles, Little Science:
  • Early dissections were public, but offered little educational value. Eventually, interest in more scientific study grew.

2. Grave Robbing and the Economics of Demand

• Supply Shortages Lead to Crime:
  • As medical schools expanded, the demand for cadavers outstripped supply. Grave robbing emerged as a lucrative illicit trade, especially targeting the graves of the poor.
    • Quote: “It's the stuff of Frankenstein... they would just dig one little hole, get down to the head, and pull the whole body out.” — Susan Lawrence [04:52]
  • Bodies could fetch the equivalent of $1,000 in today’s money.
  • Sometimes, desperate suppliers turned to murder to meet demand (notably in Scotland).
• Inequality and Exploitation:
  • In the US, enslaved people and the poor were often targeted for dissection, stirring outcry only when wealthier whites were affected.

3. Legalization and Institutionalization of Body Donation

• Shift in Public Sentiment:
  • Medical advances (organ transplants) and distrust of funeral homes made the idea of donation more acceptable by the 1950s.
• Uniform Anatomical Gift Act (1968):
  • Federal framework allowed donation of bodies for education and research.
    • Quote: “The whole body donation part is simply... that you can donate your body not only for organs, but also for research and for education.” — Susan Lawrence [08:22]
  • Bodies became property that could be legally donated.
• Unintended Side Effect:
  • Laws enabled for-profit companies to enter the market with minimal oversight.

4. Today’s Cadaver Industry: Nonprofit vs. For-Profit

• Academic Programs:
  • Universities run nonprofit programs, providing donor cards and returning cremated remains. Example: Georgetown receives ~120 cadavers a year and has 4,500 living donors signed up.
• For-Profit Companies (e.g., ScienceCare):
  • Market body donation as altruism but also provide incentives (e.g., free cremation).
    • Quote: “We are very transparent about being a for profit organization... A lot of other entities are also for profit.” — Kaelyn Goodwin [12:07]
    • Quote: “All accepted donors... receive free cremation at the end of the program.” — Kaelyn Goodwin [14:03]
  • Business scale: >257,000 registered donors [13:13]. Each donor’s body may be divided into multiple parts and sent to different research and training entities.
  • For-profit firms frame themselves as providing services, not selling body parts outright.
• Lack of Oversight:
  • Unlike organs donated for transplant, there is little regulation of how cadavers are handled, sold, or disaggregated once donated.
    • Quote: “There are no laws against selling them... more commonly, the body is cut up... and sold to multiple entities.” — Zachary Crockett [15:06]

5. Where Do the Bodies Go?

• Educational Use:
  • Medical schools use bodies for teaching and research.
• Commercial and Medical Research:
  • Body parts supply “wet labs” for device testing, pharmaceutical development, and medical training worldwide. A single donor can generate $5,000–$10,000 in revenue.
    • Quote: “It’s able to be separated in a way that honors their life... but also goes to the fullest extent.” — Kaelyn Goodwin [15:36]
• Risks and Scandals:
  • Some donors aren’t aware that their bodies may be parted out, nor where each part will go. Example: A box of human heads being stolen in Denver (2022).

6. Ethics and the Future of Body Donation

• Accreditation and Trust:
  • ScienceCare is among few for-profit firms voluntarily accredited by the American Association of Tissue Banks—but this is not required.
    • Quote: “We sought out voluntary accreditation solely to hold ourselves to that higher standard.” — Kaelyn Goodwin [17:40]
• Delicate Social Contract:
  • Ongoing risk of scandal or abuse could undermine public trust and willingness to donate.
    • Quote: “It’s a delicate social contract that I think could be easily broken if there were enough scandals...” — Susan Lawrence [19:03]
• Personal Choices:
  • Lawrence is open to donating her body but would choose an academic program focused on research like forensic decomposition (the UT body farm).

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Memorable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• “Modern anatomy really begins in the 14th century. It is the first time that humans have access to other humans to dissect.” — Susan Lawrence [03:04]
• “So it would be much easier just to kill people to provide very fresh bodies... they got away with something like 16 murders...” — Susan Lawrence [05:57]
• “They often used the bodies of slaves and the bodies of poor, free African Americans... it was when the bodies of white people were involved that the community got more incensed.” — Susan Lawrence [06:41]
• “The body is looked at as a whole and then matched with those different studies and educational opportunities at the time of their donation.” — Kaelyn Goodwin [14:52]
• “Collectively, body parts from a single donor can generate anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000.” — Zachary Crockett [16:02]
• “I don’t want to say there’s zero regulation, but. Yeah, but there is really no regulation.” — Interviewee teaser for Part 2 [19:10]
• “We really would not be in the position we’re in today without the impact of body donation. It’s really difficult to learn about the human body without the human body.” — Kaelyn Goodwin [18:02]

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Important Segment Timestamps

| Time | Segment | |-----------|---------------------------------------------------| | 01:35 | Introduction – Anatomy Class at Georgetown | | 03:04 | Susan Lawrence on early history of dissection | | 04:52 | Grave robbing, market for bodies | | 06:41 | Dissection and social justice in U.S. history | | 08:22 | Uniform Anatomical Gift Act | | 11:09 | How university donation programs work | | 12:07 | For-profit companies enter the market – ScienceCare| | 14:03 | Incentives and the “service” framing | | 15:06 | The economics of parting out donated cadavers | | 16:34 | Impact on medical progress (“wet labs”) | | 17:40 | Accreditation and regulation gaps | | 18:48 | Personal decisions, body farm, risks to trust | | 19:03 | Delicate social contract and future concerns |

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Tone and Style

• Inquisitive, thoughtful, occasionally direct: Crockett’s questions and narration mix curiosity with seriousness.
• Candid, expert, and sometimes somber: Subject matter experts like Lawrence are honest about both the value and ethical complexities.
• Balanced between history, economics, and ethics: The episode alternates between historical background, business realities, and future implications.

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Summary for New Listeners

If you’ve never thought about what happens to the bodies donated to science—or how those donations drive a quiet but enormous industry—this episode will surprise and educate you. It traces an arc from grave robbers to billion-dollar for-profit businesses, raises difficult questions about consent, profit, and respect, and sets the stage for a look at the less savory corners of the cadaver world in Part 2. This is essential listening for anyone interested in the hidden side of medicine, ethics, or modern economics.

Transcript

[Zachary Crockett]

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[Susan Lawrence]

If you hit that perfect layer, then

[Zachary Crockett]

it just pulls right back.

[Susan Lawrence]

See how there's kind of that little

[Zachary Crockett]

bit of white there, that connective tissue? We learn about how human bodies work by studying dead ones. And not just in the classroom. Researchers use cadavers to study chronic illnesses. Medical device makers use them to test out new tools. The military blows them up to measure its explosives. Science, education and technology all rely on a steady stream of cadavers. And a lucrative for profit industry has arisen to fill the demand.

[Kaelyn Goodwin]

Last year alone we placed more than 45,000 anatomical specimens for research, training and education in 50 countries worldwide.

[Zachary Crockett]

For the Freakonomics radio Network, this is the economics of everyday Things. I'm Zachary Crockett. Today, part one of a special two part story. Cadavers. To understand how cadavers became a commodity, you have to go back a few hundred years to a time when the study of anatomy was still considered a

[Susan Lawrence]

taboo in western history. Modern anatomy really begins in the 14th century. It is the first time that humans have access to other humans to dissect.

[Zachary Crockett]

That's Susan Lawrence. She's a professor and head of the history department at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She studies the history of cadavers. She has a book coming out on the topic with her fellow historian, Susan Lederer. Lawrence says that in the late Middle ages, being dissected was considered the ultimate punishment.

[Susan Lawrence]

The only bodies available were the bodies of executed murderers or other felons. A lot of people believed in the literal physical resurrection of the body. The idea that the body would be dismembered was particularly abhorrent. This would terrorize or deter other criminals from committing these heinous acts.

[Zachary Crockett]

The dissections of those criminals were public spectacles with little educational value. But as interest in anatomy grew over the next few centuries, scholars began to realize that watching a demonstration wasn't enough. They needed to do hands on training.

[Susan Lawrence]

So they started setting up cadet or places where students could come to dissect. And it's at this point when the supply of bodies of executed criminals is not enough to deal with the number of students who want to do dissection and to really learn anatomy.

[Zachary Crockett]

In other words, they needed more bodies. And to get them.

[Susan Lawrence]

That's when grave robbing really takes off. You know, it's the stuff of horror shows, it's the stuff of Frankenstein. There were basically gangs of men who would target the graves of the poor because they would not have been guarded very well. They would just dig one little hole. You didn't have to unearth the whole grave. You just got down to the head and then pulled the whole body out.

[Zachary Crockett]

By the early 1800s, robbing graves for cadavers was a big business. Bodies could be unearthed in less than an hour and sold to universities for the equivalent of around $1,000 in today's money. Some doctors and medical students dug up graves themselves.

[Susan Lawrence]

People got away with it for quite some time. Every once in a while somebody would get caught and then there would be, you know, a ruckus. But pretty much people either didn't know what was happening or they turned a blind eye.

[Zachary Crockett]

A few suppliers of cadavers even preyed on the living.

[Susan Lawrence]

In Scotland, there were two grave robbers who decided that grave robbing was an awful lot of work. And so it would be much easier just to kill people to provide very fresh bodies to the anatomists. And they got away with something like 16 murders over a period of 10 months among the very poor and the vagrants and the down and outs, people that they thought wouldn't be missed.

[Zachary Crockett]

Around this period, American Medical schools began teaching anatomy courses for the first time, and they too obtained their cadavers by nefarious means.

[Susan Lawrence]

They often used the bodies of slaves and the bodies of poor, free African Americans. And they again didn't raise a whole lot of political fuss. It was when the bodies of white people were involved that the community got more incensed.

[Zachary Crockett]

Grave robbers eventually started going after wealthier citizens graves, and only then did it become a hot button political issue in America. The result was a series of state laws that granted medical schools access to unreal unclaimed bodies from prisons, hospitals and city streets. The decision was driven by economics.

[Susan Lawrence]

If you died on the street or if you died in a public institution, the burial would be done with taxpayer money. The medical school has to now pay for the body and the disposal.

[Zachary Crockett]

Cadavers were sourced this way for the next century. But in the 1950s, things began to shift. Americans had become less superstitious and more supportive of medicine, thanks to breakthroughs like the first human organ transplants. At the same time, there was a growing distrust in the modern funeral home industry, which had made dying very expensive. The public began to rally around the idea of willingly donating their bodies to science. There was just one problem. Technically, it was illegal to donate your own body. So in 1968, legislators enacted a federal framework called the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act.

[Susan Lawrence]

The Uniform Anatomical gift Act of 1968 was designed to enable organ donation. The whole body donation part is simply kind of left over from that, that you can donate your body not only for organs, but also for research and for education. So it's kind of an umbrella act that allows multiple uses of the body.

[Zachary Crockett]

Versions of this act have been instituted by nearly every state in America. They generally define a human body as property and give Americans the right to donate that property to an organization of their choice. But those laws came with an unintended side effect. A new generation of for profit companies that can obtain and sell cadavers with very little oversight. That's coming up. The Economics of Everyday Things is sponsored by crowdstreet. You're the kind of person who reads the fine print, who likes to make your own calls, who's built a life, not to mention a career by thinking independently. So why shouldn't you invest that way too? Crowdstreet is built for self directed investors who want direct access to private market opportunities like private equity, private credit and real estate. Vetted offerings, transparent data, and clear diligence summaries help you make confident, informed choices. Because independence doesn't stop at your desk or your business or your weekend projects. It should extend to your investments too. Invest the way you live independently. Learn [e-mail].

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[Susan Lawrence]

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[Susan Lawrence]

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[Zachary Crockett]

Sometimes AT&T business Wireless Connecting changes Everything. Now that it's legal to donate your body to science, US Medical schools have their own body donation programs. If you bequeath your body to Georgetown, for instance, the university will give you a donor card to put in your wallet. And when your time comes, you'll be frozen in a lab and put to use within 30 months. Georgetown receives around 120 donated cadavers every year, and it currently has 4,500 living donors signed up. University donor programs like this are strictly not for profit. But if you don't want to end up in a classroom, you have another option. You can give your body to one of America's many for profit body donation companies who collect bodies and sell them to third parties.

[Kaelyn Goodwin]

We are very transparent about being a for profit organization, and we are also quick to remind people that funeral homes, crematories, those entities are in most cases also for profit organizations.

[Zachary Crockett]

That's Kaelyn Goodwin. She's the vice president of Marketing at ScienceCare.

[Kaelyn Goodwin]

We are the world's largest program that's dedicated to the facilitation of body donation for scientific purposes.

[Zachary Crockett]

ScienceCare opened its doors for business in Arizona 23 years ago. It was started by a funeral insurance salesman who saw an opportunity to be a cadaver middleman. He'd seek out willing donors, then sell their bodies to businesses that had a need for them. The firm grew to around $30 million in annual sales before it was acquired by a private equity firm in 2016. Today, ScienceCare has seven donation facilities across the country, and it accepts bodies in most states.

[Kaelyn Goodwin]

We have as of Yesterday, more than 257,000 people registered with us that intend to donate their body to science.

[Zachary Crockett]

ScienceCare attracts these donors by marketing body donation as an altruistic act.

[Kaelyn Goodwin]

So one particular campaign that I've worked on this year is the concept of there's a hero in us all. And the idea is helping people understand that we all have this opportunity at the end of our lives to help our bodies go to expand the knowledge and awareness of our inner workings for the benefit of our future generations.

[Zachary Crockett]

But like other body donation programs, they also offer material incentives.

[Kaelyn Goodwin]

All accepted donors in the Science Care program receive free cremation at the end of the program. Anything that's not collected for active projects, research opportunities, et cetera, is cremated and returned to the designated recipient.

[Zachary Crockett]

According to Susan Lawrence, companies like ScienceCare will often say that they provide a service, not a product.

[Susan Lawrence]

That's kind of the umbrella that these for profit companies are operating under is that they're not actually buying and selling body parts, they're just selling that process. It is the reimbursement cost for the difficulty of securing the body, preparing the body, transporting the body, all of those things.

[Kaelyn Goodwin]

The body is looked at as a whole and then matched with those different studies and educational opportunities at the time of their donation.

[Zachary Crockett]

But unlike live organ donation, which has strict federal oversight, bodies donated for education or research purposes are largely unregulated. There are no laws against selling them. Sometimes bodies are sold fully intact to medical schools that have cadaver shortages either in the US or abroad. But more commonly, the body is cut up into forearms, torsos, heads, knees, and sold to multiple entities.

[Kaelyn Goodwin]

It's able to be separated in a way that honors their life and their decision, but also goes to the fullest extent. We collaborate with medical device manufacturers, research organizations, medical professional associations, pharmaceutical companies, and world renowned medical teaching and training organizations worldwide.

[Zachary Crockett]

Cadaver workshops, or so called wet labs, are a particularly lucrative market for body parts. When medical device manufacturers design a new tool or when surgeons come up with a new procedure, it needs to be tested, often in bulk, which means the researchers need a specific body part in large quantities. Collectively, body parts from a single donor can generate anywhere from 5,000 to to $10,000. A lot of good things come out of these partnerships.

[Kaelyn Goodwin]

Science Care donors over the years have aided in cancer research, Alzheimer's research, the development of new drugs, biomechanical testing that helps us develop new medical devices. The research and development for patient care outside of surgical or emergency training wouldn't be possible without the gift of body donation.

[Zachary Crockett]

But Many donors aren't aware that their bodies will be parted out, and the company never says exactly where those parts are going. In 2022, concerns were raised when a box full of human heads from ScienceCare was stolen from a cargo truck in Denver. Even so, ScienceCare is one of the most trusted body donation firms in the country. It's one of only a handful of for profit companies accredited by the American association of Tissue Banks, the same organization that regulates live organ donation.

[Kaelyn Goodwin]

It's not a requirement to operate to be accredited through the aatb. We sought out voluntary accreditation solely to hold ourselves to to that higher standard of regulatory compliance.

[Zachary Crockett]

Goodwin says ScienceCare sees it as a moral obligation to take care of the cadavers entrusted to it.

[Kaelyn Goodwin]

When you look at modern medicine and compare it to the medicine that was being practiced a century or even more ago, we really would not be in the position we're in today without the impact of body donation. So, you know, at the end of the day, it's really difficult to learn about the human body without the human body.

[Zachary Crockett]

Susan Lawrence is thinking about donating her own body to science someday, but when the time comes, she'd prefer to give it to an educational institution rather than a for profit company. She's looking at a program at the University of Tennessee that runs a body farm where forensic anthropologists use cadavers to study the decomposition of human remains.

[Susan Lawrence]

It doesn't bother me at all to think of my body being used for, you know, how did bodies decay in the back of a car or something like that.

[Zachary Crockett]

But she's also worried that the future of body donation could be called into question.

[Susan Lawrence]

It's a delicate social contract that I think could be easily broken if there were enough scandals and abuse of body parts.

[Zachary Crockett]

In a market as unregulated as human cadavers, that fear may have some merit next week. In part two of this story, we talk to a man who spent more than a decade in the underbelly of the trade, and he says that the cadaver market can get pretty wild. I didn't have to have any type of medical degree or licensing to take possession of a human body. They're not paying for a fine cut. You know, we use Home Depot tools, you know, stuff like that. I don't want to say there's zero regulation, but. Yeah, but there is really no regulation. For the economics of everyday things. I'm Zachary Crockett. This episode was produced by Sarah Lilly and mixed by Jeremy Johnston. We had help from Lyric Bowdich and Daniel Moritz Rapson. After a while, you just get numb. You know, you get this request and you don't think twice about it. And then somebody else hears it over the phone. They're like, what the hell? The Freakonomics Radio Network the hidden side of everything

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