Interpol To Investigate Human Body Part Dental Implant Trade
Interpol, the international police force, has pledged to investigate the human body part trade following accusations made against a US firm concerning the manufacture of dental implants.
Ron Noble, head of Interpol, vowed to launch the investigation while speaking at a Google Ideas meeting in Los Angeles, California. The news comes in light of concerns that an American firm has distributed dental implants made from human body parts to dentists in Australia.
The Sydney Herald newspaper revealed that body parts had been harvested from human corpses in the Ukraine, before being transported to Tutogen, a German company, often with consent from the relatives of the deceased. Tutogen is part of US-based firm, RTI Biologics, one of the world’s leading implant providers with an annual turnover of around $169 million.
RTI Biologic’s local distributor has confirmed that a minimum of 134 dental implants made from harvested body parts has arrived in Australia since 2006; this figure includes at least 52 implants over the course of the last 12 months.
In response to the news, spokeswoman for RTI Biologics, Rhonda Barnat, said that all practices are undertaken legally and comply with “applicable regulations.”
The Tutogen implant revelations came to light as part of a global investigation into the global trade of human body parts, which was conducted by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
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