Fetuses Discovered In Warehouse Of Body Part Dealer Accused Of Fraud: Report

Disturbing images have emerged in the case of a man accused of running a black-market body part business. Reuters on Tuesday reviewed confidential photographs from the Detroit warehouse of body broker Arthur Rathburn that show fetuses that appear to be their second trimester and "submerged in a liquid that included human brain tissue."

Rathburn, 63, is accused of defrauding customers by renting out or selling diseased body parts to medical professionals. Rathburn pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to stand trial in January.

How Rathburn got the fetuses and what he intended to do with them is unclear. The fetuses were not mentioned in any of the publicly available court documents, according to Reuters. Dealing fetus tissue violates U.S. law while buying and selling cadavers is legal and mostly unregulated.

“The actions depicted in these photos are an insult to human dignity,” Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R- Va., told Reuters. Goodlatte chairs the House Judiciary Committee.

Rathburn ran Detroit-based International Biological Inc. with his wife, Elizabeth, where he bought bodies donated to science and sold their parts for medical and dental education and training. Rathburn’s company ran afoul of federal investigators when they noticed bizarre business practices and cross-border shipments of body parts. In 2013, their warehouse was raided by the FBI.

“Arthur and Elizabeth Rathburn sometimes obtained diseased remains from their suppliers at a reduced cost, due to the fact that end users of human remains generally reject infectious bodies and body parts for use in medical or dental training … falsely representing to those customers that the remains were free of certain infectious diseases,” alleged the federal indictment against the couple. “Arthur Rathburn used a chainsaw, band saw and reciprocating saw to dismember bodies without taking sanitary precautions.”

U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade released a statement at the beginning of the year admonishing the couple.

“This alleged scheme to distribute diseased body parts not only defrauded customers from the monetary value of their contracts, but also exposed them and others to infection,” said McQuade. “The alleged conduct risked the health of medical students, dental students and baggage handlers.”

Elizabeth Rathburn agreed to plead guilty to wire fraud earlier this year in a plea deal to testify against her estranged husband. Her charges stemmed from an incident where she brought hepatitis B- and HIV-infected body parts to an American Society of Anesthesiologists conference and claimed they were disease free.