Public Autopsies Banned By Multnomah County After One Happened

PORTLAND, OR — The Multnomah County Board of Commissioners on Thursday unanimously banned the practice of livestreaming an autopsy for profit.

The ban followed the livestreamed autopsy of a decorated World War II veteran in Portland last October.

Under the new law in Multnomah County, anyone who violates the ban will be fined $1,000.

"It's truly a violation of our humanity," County Commissioner Lori Stegmann said at the hearing. She said the issue should be criminalized so that the penalties will be harsher.

David Saunders lay naked and dead on an operating table that had been set up in a ballroom of Portland Marriott Downtown Waterfront hotel, and his body was dissected in front of a livestreaming audience of people who had each paid up to $500 to watch, according to the county.

Saunders was 98 when he died from COVID-19-related illness in August, according to public records.

"Adding to my grief for his loss was the vision in my mind of his naked, defenseless body being dismembered like a butcher preparing an animal carcass for sale," Elsie Saunders, David Saunders' widow, testified to the board.

"I was duped by selfish and immoral people for the sake of their personal monetary gain."

Saunders said previously that she thought that she had been donating her husband's remains to science.

Instead, a group called Med Ed Labs obtained the body. Med Ed Labs described itself on its website as a provider of medical training facilities for doctors and surgeons to practice latest techniques with state-of-the art equipment using high-quality human specimens.

The body ended up with an organization called Death Science. Med Ed Labs has said that it thought the body was going to be used for science.

Death Science described itself on its website as an independent education platform that works with educators to teach beyond the classroom. It produces podcasts, TikTok videos and social media content of crime scenes and other death-related matters, the website said.

Patch reached out to Med Ed Labs and Death Science for comment.