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Body of WWII Veteran Who Died of COVID-19 Dissected in Front of Live Audience at Oddities Event
The body of a WWII veteran who passed away from COVID-19 was dissected in front of a paying audience in October, against his family's wishes.
KING 5 reports that the body of 98-year-old David Saunders was dissected during the Oddities and Curiosities Expo in Portland last month.
His family told the local news outlet that his body had initially been donated to Med Ed Labs, a company that takes donations for "medical research and training," for the purpose of medical training, before it was allegedly sold to the Oddities and Curiosities Expo.
“It’s horrible what has happened to my husband,” David's widow Elsie Saunders told NBC. “I didn’t know he was going to be … put on display like a performing bear or something. I only consented to body donations for scientific purposes. That’s the way my husband wanted it. To say the least, I'm upset.”
The report states that attendees were charged $500 per person to watch a live autopsy of the body. DeathScience.org founder Jeremy Ciliberto partnered with the event and purchased the body for a reported $10,000.
Ciliberto said that the event was "not a sideshow" but "very professional," and claimed that he obtained the proper paperwork to purchase Saunders' body.
Med Ed Labs, who he purchased the cadaver from, stated that they did not know the body would be used in a pay-per-view, live autopsy. Meanwhile, the Saunders family told the news station that they did not give consent and were not aware that his body could be used this way.
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