Following a national news investigation into Tarrant County’s donation of unclaimed bodies to a university program, the county has established a new policy for how it cares for unclaimed bodies and notifies families.
Tarrant commissioners unanimously voted to approve its policy for the “disposition of deceased paupers” Oct. 15. Texas law requires each county commissioners court to care for the bodies of people who can’t afford funeral arrangements.
The new policy comes nearly a month after commissioners unanimously voted to close out a program donating unclaimed bodies and indigent bodies of residents to the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth.
The Health Science Center announced the suspension of its Willed Body Program and the termination of program leaders Sept. 13 following a monthslong investigation by NBC News. The investigation found county and Health Science Center officials failed to adequately contact family members before declaring a body unclaimed and using it for medical research and training.
NBC identified 12 cases in which families learned weeks, months or years after the fact that a relative’s body had been provided to UNT Health Science Center.
County Judge Tim O’Hare and Precinct 2 Commissioner Alisa Simmons thanked county staff for their work on crafting the new policy. Precinct 4 Commissioner Manny Ramirez was absent from the meeting.
“Thank you for your work on this policy. I appreciate you reaching out to the professionals that I suggested and hope they were helpful. The policy looks good to all of them,” Simmons said.
In the new five-page policy, a human body is considered unclaimed after an in-depth assessment finds the person’s estate does not have any resources to pay for disposition, the next-of-kin cannot pay because they are unwilling to pay or their identities are unknown, or the next-of-kin is unable to secure a funeral arrangement with funeral homes after presenting a minimum of three quotes.
Unclaimed bodies will be cremated unless the identity of the person is unknown; cremation is expressly prohibited by the person’s will; written objection is submitted by next-of-kin within 10 days after death; or the person is an honorably discharged veteran.
If any exception applies, the unclaimed body will receive a county burial, which includes transportation to a funeral home and cemetery, refrigeration, pauper casket, grave opening, burial and grave closing. A county burial will not include a viewing, funeral services, flowers, officiant or next-of-kin transportation.
Tarrant County estimates the new policy to cost $675,000. The county will request more funds as needed.
The county’s department of human services, currently responsible for providing social services and economic assistance to individuals and families, will carry out the duties outlined in the policy.
Under no circumstance will a county cremation or burial take place sooner than 11 days after the date of death and without prior written authorization by the department, according to the policy.
“All proceedings relating to the final arrangements for pauper remains shall be conducted with the utmost solemnity and respect for the decedent and next-of-kin,” Tarrant County staff wrote.
Prior to the county’s agreement with the Health Science Center, the county was responsible for the disposition of unclaimed bodies. Tarrant County previously spent around roughly half a million dollars annually on burials and cremations.
Between 2019 and 2024, the Health Science Center assumed the responsibilities of transporting bodies, filing death certificates, notifying Social Security and, ultimately, cremating the body whether it was used for medical research or not, according to an April 2022 Fort Worth Report article on the university’s cadaver program.
Health Science Center President Sylvia Trent-Adams said in a Sept. 16 email to faculty, staff and students that the Willed Body Program experienced “a substantial influx of bodies into the program” after it began working with local counties as state law allowed. The university earned roughly $2.5 million per year from outside groups through the program.
“This growth exceeded management capabilities and led to significant oversight issues,” Trent-Adams wrote. “We are refocusing our efforts on the original educational intent of the program and are working to make sure no unclaimed bodies are still being used in any of our programs.”
The university program first came under scrutiny in 2021 when University of Texas at Arlington professor Eli Shupe published a Dallas Morning News column questioning the ethics of conducting research on the unclaimed bodies of the poor without consent.
In September, following the publication of the NBC News report, O’Hare said no one’s body should be used for medical research without their pre-death consent or the consent of a loved one.
“And, certainly, no one’s body should be sold for profit, absent consent one way or the other,” O’Hare said.
Editor’s note: This story was updated at 3:30 p.m. Oct. 15 to clarify the estimated cost of the new unclaimed bodies policy.
Reporter Shomial Ahmad contributed reporting.
David Moreno is the health reporter for the Fort Worth Report. His position is supported by a grant from Texas Health Resources. Contact him at david.moreno@fortworthreport.org or @davidmreports.
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This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.