St. Petersburg Morgue Scandal Exposes Illegal Sale of Unclaimed Bodies

Law enforcement officers in St. Petersburg detained the head of the pathology department at Alexandrovskaya Hospital and one of the founders of a commercial company in connection with a criminal case involving the sale of unclaimed bodies for organ extraction, according to the regional branch of the Investigative Committee of Russia. Investigators believe that a representative of the commercial organization used persuasion and bribery to convince the head of the pathology department to transfer bodies for the purpose of removing internal organs and bone tissue. The investigation estimates that the department head systematically received monetary compensation of at least 500,000 rubles ($6,500) for these actions. The Ministry of Internal Affairs clarified that the sold bodies were used as experimental material in cosmetology, surgery, and dentistry.