(Photo by Matthew Casey - KJZZ)

John Cover, COO of Research For Life.

Companies that help people donate their body to science are one step closer to being regulated by the state after House Bill 2307 passed the Arizona Senate rules committee Thursday. 

In its current form, the bill would require businesses to get licensed through the state, and submit to unannounced facility inspections.

The Arizona Attorney General’s Office has said the industry needs to be regulated. Calls for the state to impose oversight came after the Attorney General’s office targeted a local company for selling diseased body parts and failing to get consent to give cadavers to the U.S. Army for use in developing a new crash-test dummy.  

“I never want somebody to come and tell me that you are unregulated,” said John Cover, CEO and partner at Phoenix-based Research for Life, who helped draft HB 2307. “I mean that hurts us. That hurts the families. That hurts everybody who places their trust in us.”

Some executives have questioned if state oversight would be as strict as the National Association of Tissue Banks, which accredits body donation companies. They’ve argued the industry could self-regulate if all companies decided to seek accreditation.

“Right now, if somebody wanted to, they can into a closed down Jiffy Lube and start getting bodies and start recovering them,” Cover said.

HB 2307 will soon go to a vote before the full Senate.