Your Government Sells Brains

I was at a government agency today doing some network analysis when I came across a PDF invoice. It was for a brain. The agency had taken a brain, put it in a box with some tissues and mailed it to someone and then issued a bill for some small sum of cash asking for payment. Payment for the brain.

Now I understand that when you donate your body to science that people will use your body parts for different things. And it makes sense that a Federal Agency that deals with scientists would need to move organs around for those scientists. But I had never given it much thought until I saw the invoice.