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Lawyers, regulators aim to curb abuses in human-tissue industry.

Article Excerpt
In 2004, the Cincinnati Bengals' star quarterback, Carson Palmer, was saved from a career-threatening injury when surgeons repaired his knee using donated human tissue. The tissue came from Julie DeRossi, a young Texas woman who was killed when a drunk driver ran into her car, and whose family honored her oft-stated request to donate her body parts. Since learning of her identity, the 26-year-old football player has formed a special bond with DeRossi's family, who in turn became some of his biggest fans.

Palmer and DeRossi's family were lucky: They knew where the transplanted tissue had come from and where it had gone, and the knowledge was inspiring and comforting. But for many others, the big business of body parts has led to a horror show of fraud, desecration, and disease.

In February 2006, a Brooklyn, New York, grand jury handed down a 122-count indictment against Michael Mastromarino, a former dentist and the owner of Biomedical Tissue Services, Inc. (BTS), a Fort Lee, New Jersey-based company that procured human tissue from cadavers. The indictment capped a nine-month investigation into what Michael Vecchione, executive assistant deputy attorney for Brooklyn, called "a case of medical terrorism." Also indicted were four of Mastromarino's coconspirators. The defendants face maximum 25-year prison terms if convicted.

Prosecutors reached plea agreements with seven New York funeral home directors who admitted to giving the company free reign over their cadavers and falsifying consent forms and death certificates.

According to the investigation, Mastromarino and his partners raided almost 1,100 bodies. Mastromarino allegedly paid funeral home directors $1,000 per...

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