Every year, an estimated 20,000 people donate their bodies to science after their death, hoping to advance scientific and medical knowledge. This generous act can help train medical students, improve surgery techniques, and aid in the development of new technologies.
Unfortunately, the practice is not immune to corruption. The former morgue director of the Harvard Medical School, Cedric Lodge, stole human remains and sold them over the course of several years. The news of the case, which broke last week, revealed the disturbing illegal aftermarket in human body parts. For the families of those who donated their bodies, the news is particularly disturbing.
Dr. Jack Porter is a research associate at Harvard and one of the people who received a letter from the Harvard Medical School informing him that the remains of his wife, Raya Porter, may have been affected in this case.
"It really was a shock, and it's also extremely disgusting and bizarre," he said.
Porter says his late wife came to the United States from Ukraine about 15 years ago. In her home country, she was a gynecologist, but she was unable to practice medicine in the United States due to the country's strict medical training requirements. She transitioned to a career as a nanny. The couple married in 2011 and were together until her death from colon cancer in 2017 at the age of 57. Porter said his wife's medical background informed her decision to donate her body.
"She had been a doctor, she had dissected herself as a student," he said. "She knew that it was important."
Last week, Porter received the letter about the possible fate of his wife's remains from Harvard Medical School Dean Dr. George Q. Daley.
"A lot of the media said I'm taking it pretty calmly, and I think the reason for that is two or three things," he explained. "One, I am a trained sociologist. ... Two, I'm a child survivor of the Holocaust. So I've lived with death. I lost 25 members of my family to the Nazis. And third, I'm an ordained rabbi, so I've been with dead and dying people, on their bed, holding their hands before they died and even in Jewish customs, help wash their bodies."
Porter described his emotions as more angry than depressed.
"I'm just shocked that this could happen," he said. "Somebody out there in a basement is fondling or looking or caressing my wife's body. That really shocks me."
He describes the desecration of these human remains as "Nazi-like."
In response to these events, Porter said that even if Harvard did not know what was occuring, they would still be responsible. At this point, he hasn't decided whether or not to join the class-action lawsuit against Harvard.
As far as justice goes, Porter says he would like to see the accused serve 10-15 years for their crimes.
"They knew exactly what they were doing," he said, "and they stepped over the line."
Porter said his wife's body was at Harvard Medical School from just after her death in November 2017 to when her body was cremated in February 2019.
He asked to receive her cremated remains in two boxes: one to scatter in the ocean and one for her family to bury in a Kiev cemetary. Porter said he personally delivered the second box to his wife's mother and other family members in Ukraine.
"And they're buried. Hopefully the cemetery has not been destroyed by the Russians," he said.
