Bodies were allegedly kept in poor conditions at the Paris university

A leading medical institution in Paris is facing a criminal action for trading in bodies and body parts donated for research for more than a decade.

The Centre for Body Donations at Paris Descartes university has admitted mistreating thousands of cadavers, keeping them in rat-infested and overheated rooms.

A doctors’ union alleges that some bodies have been sold to private companies for inappropriate uses such as car crash tests. It charges €900 for a body and €400 for a limb. While the centre has been trading in body parts to raise funds, staff have been selling them to make money for themselves, according to Guy Vallancien, a surgeon who was its director between 2014 and 2018.

“There was a traffic. Workers sold parts to surgeons