On August 8, lawyer Yishenghua publicly released case materials online regarding a case of theft, insult, and intentional destruction of a corpse. The materials were produced by the Taiyuan City Public Security Bureau of Shanxi Province on May 23 of this year, indicating that the case has been transferred to the Taiyuan City Procuratorate for review and prosecution.
The materials state that Shanxi Aorui Biological Materials Co., Ltd. is suspected of illegally purchasing corpses and limbs as raw materials for the production of “allogeneic bone implant materials” products, with a total operating income of 380 million yuan from 2015 to 2023. In the investigation of the case, the police seized over 18 tons of human skeletal raw materials and semi-finished products, and 34,077 finished products from the company involved.
According to the materials, the case involves the illegal theft and resale of thousands of corpses.
The materials state that there are 75 suspects in the case, involving units including Shanxi Aorui Company, Sichuan Hengpu Company, the Liver Disease Center of the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Guilin Medical University, Guilin Funeral Home, Pingle County Funeral Home, and Yongfu County Funeral Home. In addition, it also involves the crematoriums of Shuifu City, Yunnan, Banan District, Chongqing, Shiqian County, Guizhou, and Daying County, Sichuan, which are controlled by the suspect Su.
From 2015 to 2023, Li and Su, among others, instructed employees to go to Guilin, Guangxi, Chengdu, Sichuan, and other places to transport human skeletons in order to obtain a large amount of raw materials for the production of “allogeneic bone”. They screened and processed the corpses in the anatomy teaching and research rooms of Sichuan Hengpu Company and the Basic Medical College of Guilin Medical University, and then loaded the pre-processed skeletal remains onto vehicles and returned to the company for storage.
At around 16:00 on August 8, The Paper noticed that the website of the Organ Transplantation Center of the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University had urgently removed the information of Li Mouqiang, the deputy director and chief physician of the center.
Currently, this case is still in the stage of review and prosecution by the procuratorial organs and has not yet reached the trial stage in court. Considering the complexity of the case, it will take a considerable amount of time before the final determination, allocation, and investigation of the responsibilities of those involved.
However, such a case is unlikely to be quickly buried as most other news on the internet. No matter how long it takes, everyone will definitely remember this matter, this case.
How could the sale have gone undiscovered for so many years?
This case is so chilling that it makes people’s hair stand on end. Judging from the case materials disclosed by lawyer Yishenghua and confirmed by the Taiyuan police and procuratorate, the case involves a very wide range, and the activities of the suspects and enterprises have almost covered a considerable part of the country.
Although the number of crematoriums and medical institutions that can be traced at present is relatively limited, the civil affairs departments and other regulatory and law enforcement departments in these places have not noticed the traces of such operations by the suspects and enterprises for such a long time. This is hard to believe.
Because the above-mentioned funeral homes and crematoriums have formed very stable traces of contact with the places where the bodies are illegally handled, the probability and frequency should far exceed the probability and frequency of the funeral institutions’ contact with general enterprises and research institutions and the cold chain transportation of goods.
And the “raw materials” used to finally produce the so-called “allogeneic bone”, that is, the illegally obtained remains of the deceased, were concentrated and transported to Sichuan Hengpu Company, the anatomy teaching and research room of the Basic Medical College of Guilin Medical University, and other places for processing. “The case involves the illegal theft and resale of thousands of corpses.” In such a long period of time, those who were defined as illegal theft and resale of the remains of the deceased, were concentrated and processed, with such a high frequency and such a large quantity, yet they were still not discovered, which is also inevitable to arouse suspicion.
Can medical (academic) institutions not be trusted either?
It is worth noting that a detail of this case also reflects an anomaly. Li Mouqiang, the deputy director and chief physician of the Organ Transplantation Center of the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, whose resume was removed, “dismembered the remains in advance, put them in a freezer for preservation, and sold them to Shanxi Aorui Company, selling a total of more than 10 sets of human skeletal raw materials, each priced between 10,000 and 22,000 yuan”. This process also did not attract the attention of the outside world, such as the attention of the unit and colleagues. However, the total number of human skeletal raw materials sold by Li Mouqiang was relatively small, and it was obviously carried out over a relatively long period of time, so it can be understood that the relevant information was effectively concealed.
From this perspective, the “illegally obtained remains of the deceased, which were concentrated and transported to Sichuan Hengpu Company, the anatomy teaching and research room of the Basic Medical College of Guilin Medical University, and other places for processing” – the entry, exit, and processing, were not exposed, which obviously does not conform to basic logic.
According to the report, most of the stolen remains in this case came from funeral institutions in many places, but the medical colleges and hospitals in Guilin and Qingdao were also involved, and doctors in both places were accused of stealing and selling remains. And the medical colleges and hospitals in these two places did not notice this either, which to a considerable extent exposed the significant loopholes in the management of the remains of the deceased in these institutions.
Are there similar loopholes in other medical colleges and hospitals in the area, as well as in other colleges and hospitals in other places? Is there really a relatively sound and complete supervision?
The last question is that Shanxi Aorui Biological Materials Co., Ltd., which has been sealed up, has long been engaged in the development, research, production, preparation, and distribution of allogeneic tissue (bone) implant materials, and has passed the certification and flight inspection of the State Administration for many times. The company’s total operating income from 2015 to 2023 reached 380 million yuan. When the police sealed the company, there were still 18 tons of human skeletal raw materials and semi-finished products, and 34,077 finished products – according to the report, the company and its other partners in the supply chain forged many donation certificates, but why did such a large supply and such high-quality supply not arouse reasonable suspicion? That is, where did this company find so many and so good allogeneic bones?
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