42.90 Euros Per Arm: Inside a Creepy Global Body Parts Business

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According to Yurchenko, about 8,000 corpses a year are delivered to the forensic medicine department. Of that number, more than 5,000 are potential bone donors, but family members only consent to harvesting from about 150 bodies. If the two facilities in the capital already provide parts from about 150 bodies each, as Yurchenko says, and if a total of 20 facilities in Ukraine are registered with the FDA -- and, therefore, are collaborating with Tutogen -- it can be assumed that the German company obtains its body parts from large numbers of Ukrainian corpses. "All we are for the rich countries is a source of raw materials," says Yurchenko.

In May 2004, Tutogen signed a five-year contract with Bioimplant, which describes the process as follows: The Ukrainians transfer harvested tissue to Tutogen in Germany to have it processed into products. But this processing is costly. How does the Ukrainian company pay for the expensive processing? The answer is deceptively simple: with the bones, from Ukrainian corpses, that have been processed into products in Germany. This is the currency accepted by both parties to the arrangement.

What the agreement does not state is that the Germans were not producing products for Bioimplant, but were ordering substantial amounts of raw material from the Ukrainians every month.

At times, much larger numbers of body parts from Ukraine and other countries were arriving in Neunkirchen than Tutogen could even process. A document titled "Inventory, Raw Material Storage 1," dated March 2000, reveals the scope of this excess material. According to this inventory document, Tutogen warehouses already contained 688 patellar tendons, 1,831 kneecaps, 1,848 fibula, 2,114 fascia and 1,196 foot bones, or a total of more than 20,000 body parts.

In June 2002, Tutogen employees wrote the following comments in the minutes of a meeting: "Warehouse problems. More tissue than necessary continues to be delivered. Solutions are needed to address this problem."

The company documents also include references to the kinds of solutions Tutogen had in mind. According to an internal memo dated April 2002, a Ms. R. noted "that there is no longer any storage capacity in the deep freezers. Efforts must be stepped up to ship tissue to the USA."

According to a document dated June 2002, which lists the "Raw Tissue Requirements for USA Needs," the US partners required the following monthly supply:

* 119 iliac crests,

* 667 pieces of fascia lata,

* 267 kneecaps,

* 243 shafts of the femur.

Did Tutogen Break the Law?

Apparently, the deliveries to the United States were not only sent to the parent company in Florida, Tutogen Medical Inc., which could have been explained as a way of shifting the problem within the company, but also to RTI, the company's US competitor at the time.

In a table detailing a shipment from Lugansk in Ukraine, delivered on Dec. 7, 2001, a sum of €62,000 is quoted, but the recipient is identified as "TM/RTI."

If Tutogen was indeed shipping unprocessed tissue to the United States, this could constitute an act of engaging in illegal tissue trade, provided a profit was generated as a result.

In a memo dated April 4, 2002, a Tutogen employee issued the following cautionary statement: "We should avoid shipping unprocessed raw material to TMUS (Tutogen USA), so as not to create the impression of engaging in the tissue trade."

The German Institute for Cell and Tissue Replacement, another major bone producer, categorically rejects such practices. Director Hans-Joachim Mönig insists that "obtaining raw tissue from one country and passing it on to third parties is against the law. In our view, this constitutes the crime of trading in tissue."

To date, its collaboration with Aleshenko and the Kiev Health Ministry has worked exceedingly well for Tutogen. All investigations against Tutogen's Ukrainian partners in Krivoy Rog, Kiev and Dnipropetrovsk have been suspended.

But that could change. Last year, the public prosecutor's office in Krivoy Rog launched a new investigation.

Once again, forensic medicine employees, as the public prosecutor's office states in response to SPIEGEL's inquiry, are suspected of "having used coercion and fraud to obtain the consent of family members for the removal of tissue and other anatomical material for purposes of transplantation." Seventeen family members of the deceased have already testified.

On Jan. 9, 2009, the district attorney's office submitted the case to the relevant district court, where the case is still underway.

Lena Krat, the Kiev woman who was persuaded to release her father's body for tissue harvesting in 2004, would be pleased to see those responsible finally brought to justice. "Those people are truly guilty," she says, "and I am outraged that these terrible things are still taking place."

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• Part 1: Inside a Creepy Global Body Parts Business
• Part 2: A Booming Tissue Market
• Part 3: Tissue and Organ Harvesting
• Part 4: 'A Source of Raw Materials'