Their bodies were treated as resources for medical training without consent
Federal prosecutors opened a civil inquiry into the medical school's acquisition of bodies from a notorious psychiatric hospital linked to massive human rights violations. Hospital Colônia is documented as one of Brazil's worst human rights atrocities, with an estimated 60,000 deaths and practices including starvation, electroshock, and forced institutionalization.
- 105 cadavers purchased by Faculdade Ciências Médicas de Minas Gerais from Hospital Colônia
- Estimated 60,000 deaths at Hospital Colônia over decades of operation
- 1,857 bodies sold to 17 medical schools nationwide between 1969 and 1981
- Federal investigation given one-year initial timeline for transitional justice measures
- Hospital Colônia permanently closed April 27, 2026
A medical school in Belo Horizonte is under federal investigation for purchasing 105 cadavers from Barbacena's Hospital Colônia, a psychiatric facility where an estimated 60,000 people died. The institution claims cooperation with authorities while asserting current operations follow ethical standards.
In Belo Horizonte, a medical school is now cooperating with federal prosecutors in an investigation that reaches back decades into one of Brazil's darkest chapters of institutional violence. The Faculdade Ciências Médicas de Minas Gerais and its parent foundation, Feluma, say they are working closely with the federal public ministry as it examines the purchase of 105 cadavers that came from Hospital Colônia in Barbacena—a psychiatric facility where an estimated 60,000 people died over the course of its operation.
The federal inquiry, opened as a civil investigation, is trying to piece together what happened to those bodies and to establish what kind of accountability and repair might be possible now. Prosecutors have already gathered digitized historical records showing the names and hometowns of the deceased patients whose remains were sent to the medical school. But according to the federal ministry, attempts to work out some kind of consensual agreement with the institution about how to address this history have not succeeded. The investigation has been given an initial one-year timeline and is looking toward what's called transitional justice—a framework that includes efforts to establish truth, prevent repetition, repair harm to victims, and hold responsible parties accountable.
The Hospital Colônia itself became a symbol of systemic cruelty after years of reporting exposed mass institutionalizations, often without any psychiatric diagnosis, alongside degrading conditions that included starvation, lack of water, and electroshock treatments. Journalist Daniela Arbex documented the facility in her book "Holocausto Brasileiro," which revealed that between 1969 and 1981 alone, 1,857 bodies from the hospital were sold to 17 medical schools across Brazil. The comparisons to Nazi concentration camps were not metaphorical—they reflected the scale and nature of the violence.
This investigation is not isolated. In March of this year, the Federal University of Minas Gerais, also under federal scrutiny, issued a public apology for using bodies from Hospital Colônia victims in medical education at its School of Medicine and Institute of Biological Sciences. The university's then-rector, Sandra Goulart, acknowledged the practice as a violation of human dignity and committed to reparative measures. That institutional reckoning opened space for broader questions about what other schools had done and what they owed.
The medical school in its statement says it is not jumping to conclusions about historical events still under investigation, and that it respects the institutions responsible for determining what happened. It also emphasizes that its current academic and care activities operate within legal and ethical frameworks. The institution says it remains available to authorities and to society to help clarify the facts and to uphold its commitment to ethics, health education, and the public interest.
On April 27, the governor of Minas Gerais announced that the physical space where Hospital Colônia operated—now called the Centro Hospitalar Psiquiátrico de Barbacena—would be permanently closed. The announcement came during a visit to oversee construction of a new basic health unit in the city. That closure marks a symbolic end to the place itself, though the questions about what was done with the dead, and what institutions benefited from their bodies, remain very much alive in the courts and in the public record.
Notable Quotes
The institution remains available to authorities and to society to help clarify the facts and to uphold its commitment to ethics, health education, and the public interest.— Faculdade Ciências Médicas de Minas Gerais statement
The university recognized the practice as a violation of human dignity and announced commitment to measures of reparation.— Federal University of Minas Gerais, through then-rector Sandra Goulart
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why does it matter now that these bodies were purchased decades ago? What changes if we investigate it today?
Because the people who died there were never asked. They were institutionalized without diagnosis, starved, shocked, and when they died, their bodies were treated as resources for medical training. No one asked their families. No one said this is what we're doing. That silence is part of the violence. Investigating it now means saying: we see what happened, we're not pretending it didn't, and we're asking who knew and who benefited.
The medical school says it's cooperating. Does that mean they'll admit wrongdoing?
Cooperation and admission are different things. They're saying they'll work with prosecutors, which is good. But they're also careful not to "anticipate conclusions." That's lawyer language for: we're not saying we did anything wrong until we have to. The real question is whether the investigation finds documents, records, decisions that show the school knew where these bodies came from and what that meant.
What does "transitional justice" actually do for people who are already dead?
It's not for the dead—it's for the living. It's about establishing what happened so there's a shared truth. It's about reparations to families who lost people and never knew what became of them. It's about making sure institutions change so it doesn't happen again. And it's about accountability, so people understand that this wasn't just a tragedy—it was a choice made by people in positions of power.
The governor just closed the hospital. Doesn't that solve the problem?
Closing the building is necessary but it's not the same as reckoning. The hospital is gone, but the institutions that used those bodies are still here. The medical schools are still training doctors. The question is whether they're doing it differently now, and whether they're willing to face what they did.