The University of Southern California sold dozens of human cadavers to the U.S. Navy for use in trauma surgery training programs involving the Israel Defense Forces, according to contracts and a student investigation. The Navy has paid USC more than $860,000 for at least 89 bodies, 32 of which were used specifically for the IDF training. The arrangement allows the Navy Trauma Training Center to use USC’s Fresh Tissue Dissection Lab at Los Angeles General Medical Center, with USC providing the cadavers, facilities, and staff support.
One of the Navy’s contracts gave more than half a million dollars to USC for “cadavers for IDF training” over the past two years, with an option for additional purchases through 2026. Earlier agreements from 2021 and 2023 required USC to provide twelve “fresh tissue cadaver bodies” per year for the program. The cadavers were used in courses where artificial blood was pumped through the veins to simulate living patients, allowing participants to practice treating traumatic injuries.
The Keck School confirmed that the cadavers came from the Office of Decedent Affairs, which manages unclaimed or unidentified remains. The school said the bodies were obtained in accordance with legal and ethical standards. Although the use of unclaimed bodies for educational purposes is legal in California, bioethicists have raised concerns about consent and respect for the deceased. The American Association for Anatomy released guidelines in 2024 calling the use of unclaimed or unidentified individuals unethical and urging programs to rely only on informed consent from donors. “Even though they’re deceased, they still deserve a level of respect and dignity and proper treatment that we would normally give to the living,” said Thomas Champney, a professor at the University of Miami who studies the ethics of body donation.
A review by USC Annenberg Media of seven years of Navy contracts found no other U.S. universities with similar arrangements involving the Israeli military. The investigation also found that medical professionals at USC have questioned whether families of the deceased know their relatives’ remains might be used in military training.
When asked about the contracts, USC directed inquiries to Los Angeles General Medical Center. The hospital said it is proud of its longstanding partnership with the Navy through the trauma training center but denied having any role in training foreign nationals. “The County has no agreement or role regarding any use of this laboratory by foreign military personnel. Such access, if any, falls under a separate agreement between the U.S. Navy and USC,” the hospital said.
The training program has been running for more than a decade. The Navy Trauma Training Center was founded in 2002 through a partnership with Los Angeles General, which is operated by Keck faculty and serves as a teaching hospital for USC medical residents. Archived Navy documents show that IDF surgical courses began as early as 2013 and were later formalized through federal contracts in 2017 that referenced “IDF personnel” and “fresh dissection training.”
The partnership has been described by the Navy as strengthening the relationship with “one of our key military allies.” The contracts cover the cost of three cadavers per IDF training session, antibody testing, storage, perfusion services, and disposable supplies such as gloves, scalpels and gauze. The most recent contract could continue through 2026, potentially increasing the total payments to USC to nearly $1.1 million.
L.A. County General Medical Center, which houses the Navy Trauma Training Center, has distanced itself from the IDF program, stating that no foreign nationals participate through the L.A. County and U.S. Navy contract. County officials described the facility as a jointly funded resource for physician training and said that any foreign military involvement falls under a separate agreement between the U.S. Navy and USC.
That separation raises new questions for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, which oversees the Office of Decedent Affairs. Supervisors may soon face pressure to investigate how county-controlled cadavers were routed into foreign military training programs without public disclosure or consent. The Board has not announced any plans to review the contracts, though multiple ethics and medical experts interviewed by Annenberg Media said county-level oversight is urgently needed.