Bill sets rule on selling parts
Funeral home raid in Montrose spurred action
Colorado lawmakers are moving to make the state one of the first in the country to regulate companies that sell human body parts, following an FBI raid at a Montrose funeral home that also housed a body broker.
The state Senate on Tuesday gave final approval to a bill that would require businesses selling human body parts that aren’t intended to be used in transplants to register with the state and maintain records documenting the donation of bodies and their sale. Tissue banks that sell organs for transplant are already regulated. The bill, SB18-234, would also prohibit anyone who owns more than a 10 percent stake in a funeral home or crematory from owning a body broker business.
“I decided that there needs to be some intervention to protect families,” said state Sen. Don Coram, a Republican from Montrose who is one of the bill’s sponsors.
The bill comes in response to allegations of misconduct at Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors, a Montrose funeral home that was raided by the FBI and had its state license suspended earlier this year following multiple complaints.
An investigation by the Reuters news agency revealed that Sunset Mesa was the only funeral home in the country that shared a building with a body broker — and both were owned by the same woman, Megan Hess. Among the complaints detailed in the state’s investigation of Sunset Mesa was one instance where a family said they asked their loved one to be cremated but said they received cement mix and not cremated human remains in return.
Body brokers typically sell human body parts to academic or medical research facilities, and they can receive over $1,000 for certain parts. Though the practice is legal, it is also weakly regulated. In its investigation last year, Reuters found only four states that regulated the sales.
“I’m not trying to slow down science,” Coram said. “It is a legitimate business. I just want to make sure it stays legitimate.”
The bill now goes over to the House for several more votes before possibly being sent to the governor for his signature.