In September 2022, Aurimar Iturriago Villegas, a 21-year-old woman from Venezuela, made it safely to the U. S. with dreams of earning money to help her family. Tragically, she was killed in a road rage incident near Dallas, Texas, just two months later. What happened next left her mother, Arelis Coromoto Villegas, in shock. Without her family's knowledge, Aurimar's body was donated to a local medical school in Texas. There, her body was dissected and parts were valued monetarily, with her torso priced at $900 and her legs at $703. Arelis only discovered this two years later, when her daughter's body was already cremated and buried in a Dallas cemetery. This incident raises questions about how local officials handle unclaimed bodies, often neglecting to contact reachable family members. It highlights a broader issue where vulnerable people's bodies are mistreated, and families' wishes are disregarded due to the sheer number of unclaimed dead, driven by issues like opioid addiction and homelessness. Aurimar's story underscores the ethical dilemmas in using unclaimed bodies for medical research without consent.
