An elderly man who died of COVID-19 donated his body to science, but was dissected in front of a live audience at a traveling “oddities” expo without his family’s knowledge.
86-year-old David Saunders’ pay-per-view autopsy became the centerpiece of the “Oddities and Curiosities Expo,” in Portland on October 17, where “lovers of the strange, unusual, and bizarre” reportedly spent $500 a person to see his body taken apart.
“It makes me really feel saddened that this gentleman was not given the dignity and the respect that he deserved and what he and his family thought that would be happening to his body,” said Mike Clark, a funeral director who handled his body prior to its donation.
Saunders’ family gave his body to Med Ed Labs under the guise that his remains would be used for medical research, they only learned that his corpse had been dismantled for a crowd’s entertainment through local news reports.
“I was totally horrified,” Clark remarked. “Our whole staff was horrified that this is what had happened to a gentleman that he and his family thought that his body was going for the advancement of medical students.”
Instead, his remains ended up in the possession of DeathScience.org founder Jeremy Ciliberto, who a representative from Med Ed Labs claims was “beyond” dishonest about what he planned to do with the body, when he allegedly lied that it would be used for a medical class.
Ciliberto maintains that he used Saunders’ remains for their intended purpose. “I can guarantee that that man knew his body would be used for medical research,” he commented. “This is not a sideshow, this is very professional.”
Ciliberto was forced to cancel a similar event in Seattle last weekend, when organizers pulled the plug. Portland authorities are investigating if any wrongdoing occurred during the incident.
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