Could the Texas Anatomical Board send a donated body to a foreign country?

Texas AG Opinion JM-663: Anatomical Bodies Abroad

Plain-English summary

The Anatomical Board of the State of Texas asked whether it could transfer donated human bodies outside the United States. The Attorney General concluded that it could not.

Article 4585 allowed the board to send a body "to another state" under a reciprocal arrangement when one state had a shortage and the other had a surplus. The statute separately used the broader phrase "outside of this state" when discussing a donor's authorization.

The opinion treated that wording difference as deliberate. Because the Legislature authorized transport "to another state," rather than generally "outside of this state," the board's authority extended only to another state within the United States. An administrative agency could exercise only powers granted by statute or necessarily implied from its assigned duties.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 1987. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here.

Common questions

Could the Anatomical Board send a donated body to another country?

No. The opinion concluded that the statutory phrase "another state" meant another state in the United States.

Could the board send a body to another U.S. state?

The cited statute allowed interstate transport when the receiving state had a shortage, agreed to send bodies back when it later had a surplus, and the required donor authorization existed.

Why did the wording "outside of this state" matter?

The Legislature used that broader phrase elsewhere in the same statute but chose "to another state" for destinations. The opinion reasoned that the narrower wording did not include foreign countries.

Did the board have general implied power to approve foreign transfers?

No. The opinion applied the rule that administrative agencies have no inherent powers and may exercise only express or necessarily implied statutory authority.

Background and statutory framework

The Anatomical Board distributed human bodies to authorized schools, colleges, physicians, and surgeons for anatomy instruction and medical science. Article 4585(c) governed outbound interstate transport.

The statute required a reciprocal arrangement with another state and a Texas shortage determination. It also required authorization either from the person who bequeathed the body under article 4584 or from a person authorized to make a donation under the Texas Anatomical Gift Act.

JM-663 focused on the limit of the word "state." Relying on ordinary meaning and the Legislature's different phrasing within article 4585, the opinion found no express or implied power to ship bodies to foreign countries.

Citations and references

Statutes:

• V.T.C.S. article 4503a, section 2(a) (Anatomical Board purpose)
• V.T.C.S. articles 4584 through 4587 (bequests, distribution, transport, and dissection)
• Texas Anatomical Gift Act, article 4590-2, V.T.C.S.

Cases:

• Board of Insurance Commissioners v. Guardian Life Insurance Co., 180 S.W.2d 906, 908 (Tex. 1944)
• City of Sherman v. Public Utility Commission, 643 S.W.2d 681, 686 (Tex. 1983)
• Big H. Auto Auction, Inc. v. Saenz Motors, 665 S.W.2d 756 (Tex. 1984)

Source

• Landing page: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/opinions/jim-mattox/jm-0663
• Original PDF: https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/sites/default/files/opinion-files/opinion/1987/jm0663.pdf

Original opinion text

Best-effort transcription from a scanned PDF. Minor errors may remain; the linked PDF is authoritative.

March 31, 1987

Andrew F. Payer, Ph.D.
Secretary/Treasurer of the
Anatomical Board of the State of Texas
University of Texas Medical Branch
Galveston, Texas 77550

Opinion No. JM-663

Re: Whether the Texas Anatomical Board may transport dead bodies out of the United States

Dear Dr. Payer:

You ask whether the Anatomical Board of the State of Texas has authority to transfer dead bodies outside of the United States.

The legislature created the Anatomical Board for the purpose of distributing and delivering dead human bodies to institutions and individuals authorized to receive them. V.T.C.S. art. 4503a, § 2(a). Article 4585, V.T.C.S., governs the distribution of dead bodies:

(a) The board, or their duly authorized agents, may take and receive such bodies so delivered as aforesaid, and shall, upon receiving them, distribute and deliver them to and among the schools, colleges, physicians and surgeons aforesaid, including chiropractic colleges, in the manner following: Those bodies needed for lecture and demonstration in the said incorporated schools and colleges shall first be supplied; the remaining bodies shall then be distributed proportionately and equitably, the number assigned to each to be based upon the number of students receiving instruction or demonstration in normal or morbid anatomy and operative surgery, which number shall be certified by the dean of each school or college to the board at such times as it may direct. Instead of receiving and delivering said bodies themselves through their agent or servant, the said board may, from time to time, either directly or by their designated officer or agent authorize physicians and surgeons to receive them, and the number which each shall receive.

(b) The board may receive a body transported to the board from outside this state.

(c) The board may transport a body to another state in which there is a shortage of bodies if the other state has agreed to ship bodies to this state when the other state has a surplus of bodies and the board determines that there is a shortage of them in this state and if:

(1) the body is that of a person who, prior to death, in compliance with Article 4584, Revised Statutes, bequeathed his body for the purpose of enhancement of medical science and at the time of the bequest authorized the board to transport the body outside of this state; or

(2) the body was donated in compliance with the Texas Anatomical Gift Act (Article 4590-2, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes) and the person authorized by Subsection (b) of Section 3 of that Act to make the donation also authorized the board to transport the body outside of this state. (Emphasis added).

See also V.T.C.S. art. 4586 (regulations for transporting dead bodies); art. 4587 (regulations governing dissection of bodies).

An administrative agency has no inherent powers. See Board of Insurance Commissioners v. Guardian Life Insurance Co., 180 S.W.2d 906, 908 (Tex. 1944). Agencies may only exercise those powers granted by statute, together with those necessarily implied from the statutory authority conferred or duties imposed. City of Sherman v. Public Utility Commission, 643 S.W.2d 681, 686 (Tex. 1983). Article 4585(c) states that the board may transport

a body to another state in which there is a shortage of bodies if the other state has agreed to ship bodies to this state when the other state has a surplus of bodies and the board determines that there is a shortage of them in this state. . . . (Emphasis added).

We think that the "state" in those provisions means a state in the United States. See Big H. Auto Auction, Inc. v. Saenz Motors, 665 S.W.2d 756 (Tex. 1984) (if legislature does not define a statutory term, its ordinary meaning applies). The legislature used the phrase "outside of this state" several times in article 4585, but in describing the destinations to which the board could send bodies it chose the phrase "to another state." If the legislature had intended to give the board authority to send bodies anywhere in the world, it could have used the phrase it had already used several times in article 4585 and provided that the board could ship dead bodies "outside of the state." Therefore, we conclude that the Anatomical Board has no authority to send dead bodies to foreign countries.

SUMMARY

The Anatomical Board of the State of Texas has no authority to transport dead bodies to foreign countries.

Very truly yours,

JIM MATTOX
Attorney General of Texas

JACK HIGHTOWER
First Assistant Attorney General

MARY KELLER
Executive Assistant Attorney General

JUDGE ZOLLIE STEAKLEY
Special Assistant Attorney General

RICK GILPIN
Chairman, Opinion Committee

Prepared by Sarah Woelk
Assistant Attorney General