The UC Police Department (UCPD) on March 6 and 7 arrested two individuals, including one employee of the UCLA Willed Body Program, for illegal activities involving the commercialization of human remains. The police arrested the director of the willed body program for allegedly accepting money to transfer human remains to a non-UCLA individual.

The individuals were allegedly benefiting financially from anatomical donations made to the UCLA Willed Body Program, which makes human bodies available for medical education and research. Henry Reid, 54, director of the UCLA Willed Body Program, was arrested on March 6 for investigation of grand theft. Ernest Nelson, 46, a non-UCLA employee, was arrested on March 7 for investigation of receiving known stolen property.

The alleged misconduct was uncovered as the result of an internal administrative investigation conducted by UCLA. The school notified the police on Feb. 26 of possible wrongdoing when the internal investigation suggested that the activities might have criminal ramifications. A formal police investigation began on March 1.

“We are cooperating fully with the police department,� said Dr. Gerald S. Levey, vice chancellor of UCLA Medical Sciences and dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. “Based on what we’ve learned so far, we have no indication that the anatomical specimens involved in this case were used for anything other than medical education and research. The ongoing investigation will focus on verifying that.

“Nonetheless, any illegal commercialization would have violated the trust of the donors, their families and UCLA. We are deeply sorry.

“We truly thought that we had adequate policies and procedures that included strong administrative and audit oversight,� Levey said. “We are investigating how our policies failed to detect these illegal activities.�

UCLA has taken a number of immediate steps to assure that the willed body program now functions properly. Until new management is in place, Levey has appointed Dr. J. Thomas Rosenthal, associate vice chancellor of UCLA’s medical school, to assume personal responsibility for day-to-day operation of the program.

“Former Gov. and Attorney General George Deukmejian has agreed to oversee an independent reorganization of the program and to provide rigorous audit and oversight to ensure that this misconduct does not occur again,� Levey said.

Levey encouraged relatives who are concerned about family members who donated their bodies to UCLA are encouraged to call the medical school at (866) 317-6374 or to e-mail access@mednet.ucla.edu with their contact information, relative’s name and year of death. More information can also be obtained at www.ucla.edu/willedbody.

An average of 175 people per year donate their bodies to the UCLA Willed Body Program. These donations are motivated by the wish to support students in their education and do something positive for the future of medicine.

For the nearly 16,000 men and women in the United States who enroll in medical school each year, willed-body donors help shape the earliest part of their clinical careers. Anatomy, the study of the human body, is one of the most important courses in the first-year medical curriculum. This hands-on aspect of medical education — and life-saving breakthroughs in scientific research — would not be possible without the generous gift that donors make to the nation’s willed body programs.

Many departments of the UCLA Center for Health Sciences depend on human cadavers to develop new life-saving procedures and facilitate the training of surgeons. In fact, most current surgeries were first rehearsed and perfected on cadavers before doctors performed these techniques on living patients.