CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- It’s legal to sell body parts in Illinois, but the Illinois Secretary of State’s office wants much stricter regulations.
Illinois Secretary of State spokesman Dave Druker says the call for stricter rules on body part sales follows federal charges that the now-closed Biological Resource Center of Illinois in Rosemont sold donated body parts that family members thought would be used for research.
“It is an unregulated area. We’re looking at putting it in the law to have a specific contract when somebody donates a body to science that it be specified what is to be done,” Druker said.
Druker says the regulations would also restrict the sales of diseased or otherwise hazardous body parts.
“Sometimes the body parts aren’t checked and examined to make sure that they are clean and not diseased. This is then very dangerous for somebody who is working on the body parts for medical research,” Druker said.
Druker says the goal is to have the regulations passed by lawmakers and signed into law either later this year or early next year.