A U.S. university taking bodies that people donated for science and handing them over to the military is already a serious breach of trust. But what USC and UC San Diego have been doing goes further. They’ve been supplying cadavers to the U.S. Navy, and some of those bodies ended up in trauma‑surgery training for Israeli military teams in Los Angeles. None of this was disclosed to donors or their families.
USC has taken more than $860,000 from the Navy over the past seven years in exchange for at least 89 cadavers. Thirty‑two of those were used specifically for Israeli military training at Los Angeles General Medical Center. The Navy contracts spell it out: USC is responsible for acquiring “fresh tissue cadaver bodies,” many of them coming from UCSD’s donation program.
The bodies weren’t used for basic anatomy classes. They were used in battlefield trauma simulations. Israeli military doctors practiced on “perfused cadavers,” meaning the bodies were pumped with artificial blood to mimic living patients. These sessions included treating gunshot and explosion wounds.
USC also sourced bodies from unclaimed or unidentified remains through its Office of Decedent Affairs. Using unclaimed bodies is legal in California, but bioethicists have been warning for years that it’s unethical to use people who never consented — especially for military training. The American Association for Anatomy has said programs should rely only on informed consent.
Students at USC’s Keck School of Medicine were the first to publicly push back. Seventy‑two students, residents, and physicians signed a letter demanding transparency. They said donors expect their bodies to be used for medical education, not for military trauma drills involving a foreign army. When they reviewed the consent documents, they found no clear disclosure that bodies could be used this way.
USC’s administration insists this is “educational,” not “military,” but the Navy contracts contradict that. The purpose is to strengthen cooperation between the U.S. military and the Israeli Defense Forces.
Civil rights groups have condemned the program outright. CAIR‑LA called USC’s actions “disturbing,” pointing out that many of the bodies appear to have been unclaimed individuals who never had the chance to consent. They also criticized USC for enabling a foreign military accused of mass civilian killings in Gaza.
The bottom line is simple. People donated their bodies believing they would help train doctors, advance science, or support medical research. They did not consent to being used in military exercises, let alone for a foreign army. USC and UCSD never told them. They never told their families. And they profited from it.
This is not a paperwork error. It’s a systemic breach of trust, carried out quietly for years, and only exposed because students and journalists dug into the contracts.
