(Photo by Matthew Casey - KJZZ)

John Cover, COO of Research For Life.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has signed a bill giving state officials power to regulate post-mortem body donation companies, but it could be up two years before they officially start.

The details of an Arizona Attorney General report showing that the company Biological Resource Center of Arizona had sold diseased body parts, including to an affiliate of Harvard Medical School, were gory.

House Bill 2307 aims to keep that from happening again by requiring body donation companies to get licensed through the state, and submit to unannounced inspections.

“I think that this industry will benefit from this legislation in the long run because we will be legitimized,” said John Cover, chief operating officer of Research for Life, a body donation company that helped draft the bill. “No one will ever be able to come up and say ‘you are not regulated.’ And I think that will bring trust.”

The bill takes effect in August. But the details of exactly how it will be implemented still need to be worked out, said Colby Bower, assistant director for policy and intergovernmental affairs at the Arizona Department of Health Services.

“We have to file public notice,” Bower said. “We have to develop drafts of our rules. Then we have to take public comment on those drafts, make various revisions, post those to the public and we go through that cycle several times.”

It could be 18 to 24 months before the process is complete, Bower said. Once it’s done, the law will pay for itself through the licensing fees.