(LifeSiteNews) — A Texas family is seeking answers after their infant daughter’s body was transferred to a funeral home without her organs following the baby’s sudden death at a Fort Worth hospital.
Samaria Bates and her fiancé, Kenneth Sauls, welcomed premature twin girls on October 23, 2025, when they were born at 29 weeks at Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital. Thankfully, the infants had no major health problems, but they were kept in the neonatal intensive care unit to grow older and stronger before being discharged home.
For six weeks the babies did well. However, when their father arrived on December 5 for a routine visit he was blocked from entering because a “sterile procedure” was taking place. The family had not been notified of any medical emergency. Sadly, little Samaria died later that same day. But it gets worse. Even though Samaria’s parents say they did not consent to organ removal, when their baby arrived at the funeral home her organs were missing.
This horrific experience is unfortunately not unique. Just this month, during a U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means Subcommittee hearing “Lives at Stake: Holding Tax-Exempt Organ Procurement Organizations Accountable,” Representative Terri Sewell of Alabama stated on record that organs have been going missing from deceased Alabama prisoners. In 2023, deceased inmate Brandon Clay Dotson was brought to the funeral home missing a heart. The body of another prisoner, Charles Edward Singleton, was delivered to the funeral home without any of his internal organs.