UCLA Faces Possible Lawsuit Over Cadaver Disposal

Date: July 31, 2003

Source: News Room

The University of California at Los Angeles is facing a potential lawsuit brought by 8,000 people who claim it illegally dumped the corpses of relatives donated to its medical school. The families accuse UCLA of breach of contract, negligence and fraud over the way it disposed of bodies willed to the university's medical school for medical science. They say bodies were stuffed with medical waste, folded and packed into the university's on-site crematorium three to four at a time. The family members also claim the ashes were improperly scraped into a bin, mixed with animal remains and taken to a Los Angeles County landfill for disposal. But UCLA lawyers argue that those who agreed to donate their bodies were never promised a full burial and that a planned burial-at-sea program never took place.
More information: www.ucla.edu.

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