‘Deeply shaken’

Research advocates maintain that body donations are still key to helping students learn the fundamentals of medicine.

But family members like Volpin argue that universities owe body donors more transparency than they currently offer.

Volpin told AJ+ she was glad the story was “getting exposed at this level”. She called on the universities to do more to make amends.

“I think that they should acknowledge that they have misled people and state how they’re going to go forward to protect their own donation programme. I’m sure it’s in shambles because of the lack of trust,” Volpin added.

But would-be donors like Smith say they feel their concerns about the training programme are being dismissed.

After Smith withdrew as a future body donor, she said she received a response from a UCSD representative.

“I understand you have some reservations on being a donor,” the representative wrote. “We will not be responding to factually inaccurate reporting by student reporters who have an agenda.”

The student journalists, meanwhile, have rejected UCSD’s characterisation of their reporting as “agenda” driven.

“The only agenda we’ve ever had was to investigate and report on the truth,” said USC student journalist Sasha Ryu.

One of Ryu’s co-authors in the investigation, student journalist Thomas Murphy, told AJ+ that learning about the surgical training programme was upsetting for his interviewees.

“The donor families I’ve spoken with are deeply shaken by the situation,” Murphy said. “What was once a memory of love and pride is now tarnished by the institution’s actions.”

Just before AJ+ published its documentary last month, University of California Health — the network that UCSD Health is part of — added new information to its FAQ page on body donations.

The revised page now acknowledges that donated bodies may be “shared” with other institutions and used to train military medical personnel.

“It just seems like they’re trying to cover up something, cover their backs if lawsuits are brought,” Gomez, one of the family members, told Al Jazeera.

However, neither of the two universities implicated in the programme had updated their individual FAQ pages.

The US Navy has issued a “notice of intent” to renew contracts for the programme with USC through at least 2029.