The state agency put in charge of Texas' whole-body donation system three years ago never got the program properly off the ground, according to a review released this week by staff of the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission.
Lawmakers abolished the old Anatomical Board of the State of Texas in 2023 and moved its work to the Texas Funeral Service Commission, which also licenses funeral homes. Along with that came new duties to regulate willed-body programs, non-transplant anatomical donation organizations and facilities that use donated bodies and specimens to train doctors, first responders, forensic scientists and military personnel.
That transfer "has not gone well," the staff report's executive summary says. Reviewers describe repeated waves of turnover, especially among leaders, rule rewrites that started and stalled, and policies set outside the formal rulemaking process, which they warn leaves the agency open to legal challenges.
By the time the review began, the summary says, the anatomical program was not much further along than when the Legislature handed it over.
How it got here
The Texas Tribune reported that the Legislature ordered this limited review after a 2025 NBC News investigation found that weak state supervision let one research facility profit by cutting up donated bodies and selling the parts to other groups. The commission responded by halting shipments of donated bodies out of Texas, the Tribune said.
The problems reach beyond body donation. Citing the review, the Tribune reported that the agency resolved 197 complaints about funeral services in fiscal 2025, took more than 370 days on average to close each one and ended the year with 603 still pending. It resolved one of 12 complaints involving the anatomical program.
What staff recommend
Because the review was limited to the anatomical program, staff said they could not recommend abolishing the commission or moving its funeral duties elsewhere. Instead, they propose:
