Chopped, packaged and shipped

The challenge, then, is spreading information and shaping an international dialogue that encourages us to evaluate the necessity of the industry and how we might choose to regulate it. It is hard to trust an industry where there are significant incentives to avoid safe practices and little monitoring. Courts are ill-prepared to deal with these cases, deferring to legislature and slapping the hands of body-part sellers.

In reality, these black markets serve a public good by supplying life-saving and beneficial materials - such as heart valves, skin and tendons - to a demanding public. But without regulation and monitoring, fraud, mistakes, abuse and coercion can occur as they did in New Jersey, with global impact.

Here is a solution. Let us not ignore the robust human-tissue industry. Rather, let us begin thinking about regulation, enforcement and compensation for donors. Tissue banks avoid dealing with families now. Families need to be a part of this matrix. The essential elements of an informed system would include donor protections, an option for donor compensation, recourse for misrepresentation and mandatory annual reporting of donor or provider information, including race, gender and age data to prevent predatory practices.

I am saddened for the families that have been affected by this latest scandal in the body-part trading world. We can only hope that with sustained attention reform might be in the wings.