Bodies of the Poor Piling Up at Chicago Morgue

Wednesday, January 18, 2012
(photo: CBS-Chicago)
Times are so tough in Illinois that the state and its largest city are having a difficult time burying its poor.
 
In Chicago, bodies are stacking up in the city morgue because the medical examiner's office hasn't paid for the burial boxes used for the dead who were indigent.
 
At the office of the Cook County Medical Examiner, the morgue's cooler, built to hold 300 bodies, currently has 500, including a hundred babies. All of the decomposing corpses are too much for the room's ventilation system.
 
“There are so many bodies in there now, they can’t keep it cool enough. The stench is like nothing I’ve ever seen,” a source told the Chicago Sun-Times. "I think it’s sacrilegious."
 
Chief Medical Examiner Nancy L. Jones acknowledged the backlog, but claimed that there were no more than 300 unburied bodies. In September Jones courted controversy when it was revealed that bodies of the indigent would be donated to science unless family members collected them within 60 days.
 
The rest of the state is short on cash to cover the cost of burying those on welfare. State lawmakers slashed funding for such work, cutting what was a $13 million budget down to $1.9 million. The state pays for the burial of an estimated 12,000 poor people each year.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
 
‘Sacrilegious’ — Bodies Piling Up at Cook County Morgue (by Lisa Donovan and Lauren Fitzpatrick, Chicago Sun-Times)

Why Illinois Can't Afford its Poor Dead (by Mary Ann Ahern, 5NBC-Chicago) 

Comments

ken olsen 12 years ago
dingo: you are sooooo right. this isn't rocket science, it's plain logic. they are all failing us and their oaths. where i come from if you don't do the job, you're fired. simple logic. thanx for the logical posting.
dingo_ate_my_baby 13 years ago
@ron paul…there is just so much a president can do, even ron paul. remember that tho obummer signed the ndaa bill, it was the reps in congress who created it. as long as they create such laws and do not create laws and bills that serve the rest of us…things will not change. not even with ron paul…or abraham lincon for that matter. vote out all the incumbents of both party’s in the house and senate, and do it again, and again until they get the message. 1) we want public elections and the media will supply free time to all candidates for debates, not advertising. 2) term limits on all elected officials…to hell with these dynasties. 3) higher taxes for all corporations and no more loopholes. you need an airplane for your corp, it is not deductible…take a bus if it bothers you. 4) no more offshore accounts or corp tax havens. i could go on and on…
RaSheedah 13 years ago
you can't blame that on rahm. hell when they had money to pay burial costs, the damn cemetaries would hold the service, then dump the body and reuse the casket for the next person/deceased. that is more of an injustice...in my opinion. cremete them...cheaper for the tax payer. (please individually, not a mass burning)
Capt America 13 years ago
and what a demonstration of the sort of city executive rahm emanuel has become; who would've thought he was a cold and calculating expedient sorta politician?......is this leadership or what...?
Ron Paul 20212 13 years ago
i'm not surprised and its sad too. just google how they dump our war dead in land fills. ron paul 2012 vote for real change with a record to back it up! if the status quo continues where do you think we will be at as a nation in another decade? the debt ought to be a good indicator of failed leadership in both parties that like to grow government and spend money we no longer have and this can not continue. they will tell you its for your security but in the mean time our financial problem is a threat to national security above anything else. we are bankrupt but by washington's actions and the things they say and do doesn't seem to think so. the blind leading the blind.
Caiaphas Flag 13 years ago
you can tell alot about a culture in how they treat their dead. http://yeoldefalseflag.com

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