http://www.theprovince.com/news/Human+h ... story.html
http://travel.usatoday.com/flights/post ... ck/97121/1
Southwest officials confirmed today that the airline intercepted a package containing "40 to 60 human heads" in Little Rock last week, MSNBC reports.
The incident, which happened last Wednesday at the Little Rock airport, began when Southwest refused to carry the package because it was improperly labeled.
"And then when we found out what was in the package," Southwest spokeswoman airline spokesman Marilee McInnis tells MSNBC, "we contacted local authorities and they contacted the coroner."
NBC DFW writes the heads were being shipped by Arkansas-based JLS Consulting "to the Fort Worth office of Medtronic, a leading medical research and technology company based in Minnesota." The shipping parties claim the body parts were supposed to be used for educational and research purposes, but Arkansas authorities say they plan to completely investigate the incident.
"We've come to the conclusion that there is a black market out there for human body parts for research or for whatever reason," Pulaski County coroner Garland Camper tells NBC DFW. "We just want to make sure these specimens here aren't a part of that black market and underground trade."
In the meantime, Southwest's McInnis tells MSNBC the airline is working to educate the involved parties on what the MSNBC describes as "proper protocol for body-part shipments."
... this is more than a little disturbing. It's fine that they are there and fine that they are being transported if they were for legal scientific work. But that fact that no one is claiming them and no one seems to know who sent them, where they are going, and for what purpose is bothersome. One can only wonder what was going to become of the remains and how much the families knew about it?!
