DONATED TISSUE USED FOR PROFIT.(MAIN)

Byline: STEPHEN J. HEDGES and WILLIAM GAINES Chicago Tribune

Jim Bardsley lives in White Oak, Ga., and runs two businesses.

One sells catfish. The other sells human body parts.

Bardsley has had the catfish farm for just two years. But he was one of the first to jump into the human body parts trade 14 years ago, eventually starting three nonprofit tissue banks and a for-profit company, all to ship body parts to scientists for a fee.

He says he is proud of his contribution to science. He's also not shy about making money: His current nonprofit earned $1.5 million last year, a fraction of the body parts business in America.

Many who followed Bardsley into the tissue trade have used the cover of nonprofit status to remove, process and sell body parts for use in everything from knee replacements and cosmetic surgery to the testing and manufacture of new drugs, a Chicago Tribune investigation has found.

Huge markups in prices and a lack of federal regulation have attracted a wide range of individuals, tissue banks and for-profit companies looking to cash in on transactions that begin with an act of generosity -- a grieving family's decision to donate the tissue of a deceased loved one. …