As of: January 30, 2024, 11:51 a.m
By: Judith Finsterbusch
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In Spain, undertakers are said to have sold corpses to universities.
(Symbolic photo) © David Revenga
In Spain, a funeral company apparently sold corpses to universities for study purposes and forged consent forms.
The suspected fraudsters from Valencia cashed in twice.
Valencia - The police in Spain have solved a macabre case: In Valencia, national police officers have arrested the two owners and two employees of a funeral home who are said to have illegally sold corpses.
To do this, the suspects apparently forged documents in order to be able to collect the bodies of the deceased from hospitals and retirement homes.
The bodies are then said to have been sold to universities for study purposes.
Even if the funeral system in Spain is more liberal than in Germany, a declaration of consent is still required for a body donation.
Lucrative business with corpses: Universities in Spain paid 1,200 euros per body
The business was apparently lucrative for the undertakers: they received 1,200 euros per corpse sold from the medical faculties of the universities in Spain.
The suspected fraudsters sometimes even cashed in twice by offering to be cremated after the universities had completed their studies.
Cremation of corpses is mandatory in Spain if the bodies were used for medical examinations; in the case of the illegal corpse trade in Valencia, they were dismembered at universities.
According to the Spanish police, the cremation never took place, at least not legally.
Rather, the undertakers apparently placed the body parts in the coffins of other deceased people, who were cremated - legally and upon request.
The suspects are said to have received over 5,000 euros from a university through eleven such cremations alone.
With this scam, the undertakers from Valencia were able to make the body parts disappear without having to pay a cremation company.
Undertakers sold corpses to universities in Spain - deceased without relatives
In order to be able to sell the corpses to universities inconspicuously, the suspects concentrated on the deceased who had no relatives, preferably foreigners or homeless people.
However, the police noticed the case of a dead person who was supposed to be buried in his place of residence in the Valencia region.
The town hall had covered the funeral costs, as is usual when the deceased or their family do not have the means to pay for the funeral - as was the case in a recent case in Calp on the Costa Blanca.
However, the body from Valencia was never buried in the intended cemetery.
Instead, according to the police report, the suspicious undertakers sold them to a university for 1,200 euros without any relatives or friends giving their consent.
This case got the police investigation in Spain rolling in the first place.
The officials discovered further inconsistencies, this time in a retirement home.
There was a declaration of consent to make the body available for research.
It was allegedly signed by the senior himself, three days before his death.
As it turned out, the document was forged: the man was no longer mentally capable of signing consent forms himself.
Especially since, according to the document, the body should have been handed over to a specific medical school, but ultimately ended up at another university that paid more money.
The suspects are now awaiting trial in Spain on charges of fraud and document forgery.