The University of Southern California (USC) has received nearly $1.1 million from the US Navy over the past seven years for human cadavers used in military medical training, including courses designed for the Israeli occupation Forces (IOF), according to federal contracts reviewed by Annenberg Media.

Since 2017, the Navy has paid USC more than $860,000 for at least 89 “fresh cadaver bodies,” 32 of which were used by IOF medical teams at Los Angeles General Medical Center. One contract remains active, allowing an additional $225,000 in cadaver purchases through September 2026.

Although the cadaver contracts represent less than 1% of USC’s broader Navy agreements, researchers could not identify any other US university supplying bodies for IOF training.

The Navy Trauma Training Center (NTTC), which operates from L.A. General, oversees the courses. While US Navy physicians, nurses, and corpsmen rotate through a 30-day combat medicine program, IOF surgical teams undergo 96 hours of intensive trauma training.

Documents show that IOF personnel practiced on both non-perfused and perfused cadavers, the latter artificially pumped with blood to simulate battlefield conditions.

Ethical questions over consent

Medical experts are raising alarms over how the bodies are sourced. Many come from the Los Angeles County Office of Decedent Affairs, which handles cremation and burial for unclaimed remains. Others are given away through USC’s Anatomical Gift Program.

“Even though they’re deceased, they still deserve dignity and proper treatment,” said Thomas Champney, an anatomy professor at the University of Miami who studies body donation ethics. He noted that, unlike organ donation, cadaver use is loosely regulated, with most universities operating under “blanket consent” policies.

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Critics argue that there is no informed consent for cadavers being used by foreign military personnel. “Unclaimed bodies can’t consent at all,” Champney said, calling the practice “widely considered unethical.”

A Keck physician, who leaked the documents to Annenberg Media under the condition of anonymity, went further, “The facility wasn’t designed to save lives. It was just to desensitize people to the trauma.”

USC and Navy responses

Asked about the contracts, USC referred questions to L.A. General, which emphasized that “no foreign nationals participate through the L.A. County and US Navy contract.” The hospital described the Fresh Tissue Dissection Laboratory as a joint training resource, adding, “The County has no role regarding any use of this laboratory by foreign military personnel. Such access, if any, falls under a separate agreement between the US Navy and USC.”

The Keck School of Medicine defended the program, saying it provides “trauma training courses as part of our core commitment to saving lives.” Since 2013, the school confirmed, international medical personnel, including Israeli surgeons, nurses, and anesthesiologists, have participated in Navy-sponsored courses.

USC has worked closely with the US military for over 100 years, but its cadaver-based training for the IOF is relatively new. Archived Navy press releases indicate the IOF trauma courses began in 2013, four years before cadaver contracts were formalized.

Unresolved debate

Each IOF course uses three cadavers, with multiple courses held annually. Contracts cover refrigeration, blood-flow simulation (“cadaver perfusion services”), antibody testing, and surgical supplies, as well as nearly 100 hours of staff and technician time per training session.

The partnership, Navy officials have said, strengthens ties with “one of our key military allies.”

The revelations highlight a murky intersection of science, ethics, and geopolitics. Families of the deceased may have little knowledge, or none at all, that their relatives’ bodies could be used in combat training for the Israeli occupation army amid its ongoing genocide in Gaza.

As one USC medical student, Claire, said at a campus panel, “USC profits off of this. It’s disgusting. If I were asked to work in that lab, I’d refuse.”

The most recent contract, still in effect, could keep cadaver training for Israeli army personnel running through 2026.

Read more: 'Israel' reduced 604 mosques to rubble, stole 1,000 bodies from Gaza