New York Pays Family $115,000 Settlement After Accidentally Donating Grandma’s Body to Science

A New York family has received a $115,000 settlement from the city after a Bronx morgue accidentally donated their mother’s corpse to a medical school.

The New York Daily News reported Thursday that 85-year-old Aura Ballesteros died in May 2014, but instead of holding her body while her children arranged a funeral, the morgue sent her body off to be used for research.

According to the Daily News, the state of New York has the right to either bury or donate a body that hasn’t been claimed after 14 days. When Ballesteros family discovered what had happened, too, her body had already been embalmed. Her son testified that she was nearly unrecognizable.

A new law would prevent this kind of incident from occurring in the future by requiring family consent before donating a body for research.