Israel: Body Parts and Bio-Piracy

dublin | rights, freedoms and repression | other press Monday October 25, 2010 16:50 by Avi Weinstein - Israeli Anarchists Against the Wall

Tissue, Skin, Bone and Organ Harvesting at Israel's National Forensic Institute

In an exclusive CounterPunch report, Professor of anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley; Nancy Scheper-Hughes dishes the dirt on one of the many vile crimes of Israel.

Rachel Corrie

Excerpt No 1: To Dr. Kugel the prime issue had nothing at all to do with science: it was about disrespect, about hoarding body specimens, about turning the Institute into a factory of bodies. The Institute’s conduct was motivated by money, by power, and by authoritarian paternalism of the sort that says, “We know what’s good for you, we’ll decide what happens to you, the person who doesn’t know anything. We’ll decide.” And that’s the reason why that happened, and Dr. Kugel asserts it is happening to this day.

Excerpt No 2: Dr. Hiss, who conducted the autopsy of Rachel Corrie at the request of the Israeli military, admitted that he had violated an Israeli court order that required an official from the U.S. Embassy to be present as a witness. Hiss stated that it was his policy not to allow anyone who is not a physician or a biologist to observe autopsy. Hiss admitted that he had retained samples of tissues and organs from Corrie’s body for examination and testing without informing the Corrie family. Hiss was uncertain about whether the samples had been buried with other body samples from the Institute. Corrie’s parents, Cindy and Craig, were shocked by these chilling admissions and really do not know quite what to make of them or what, if anything, they should do about it. They are seeking, they told me, only the truth and symbolic damages of $1.00. The prevention of harm to others is, they say, far more important than money.

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