Oops, Did We Say We Wanted A Sample? Too Bad We Took The Whole Thing.

MayorBob.

Posted to Legal on Sat Sep 27, 2008 at 11:27:20 AM EST (promoted by port1080). RSS.

When Jesse Smith died of heart failure in 2003, his mother, Nancy Adams, was asked by Stanley Medical Research Institute (SMRI) if it could take some of her son's brain tissue for a medical study.  The 21-year-old Snoqualmie, Washington man was listed as an organ donor on his drivers license but his mother was sure only a piece of Smith's brain would be harvested.  When she found that Jesse's entire brain was removed, grief over the loss of her son turned to shock and anger.  Shock and anger turned into a lawsuit against the King County Medical Examiner's Office (KCMEO) and SMRI.  The initial try to seek redress was rebuffed at the lower court level.  So she took it to a higher level.  In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court of the state of Washington ruled the lower court had erred in dismissing all elements of the suit.  Now the case goes back to lower court to determine whether KCMEO and SMRI engaged in a conspiracy to illegally interfere with a dead body.

SMRI, which is headquartered in Maryland, says it is the "world's biggest private source of philanthropic support for psychiatric research."  SMRI provides brain tissue samples to laboratories around the world.  It favors donation of the entire brain because it is difficult to ascertain from which part of the brain an appropriate sample should be extracted.  Smith never had a history of mental disease, which SMRI said would make his brain an excellent source for control subjects.  The Supreme Court decision (pdf doc) ruled that the "facts clearly support an action for mental suffering based on the alleged misuse of a body."  It further criticized the medical examiner because his authority to remove body organs didn't include the right to "retain the brain, and merely return a veritable shell of the skull to the family for burial, absent some compelling reason for further explanation."  SMRI has issued public statements that it had never taken entire brains from donors without proper release.

A local Seattle TV station investigation revealed the discovery of a secret commerce between KCMEO and SMRI.  SMRI had funded a pathologist on the KCMEO staff in return for brain tissue procurement.  In addition to this SMRI paid KCMEO close to (US)$1.5 million from 1995 to 2004 in exchange for around 200 brains.  King County Public Health Director Dr. Alonzo Plough had, in the past, defended the arrangement, saying that brains were not being sold to SMRI and consent was always given before whole brains would be removed.  In spite of all this there are at least two other lawsuits in Washington alleging cases similar to Smith's.  Additionally, SMRI is the target of ten similar cases in Maine.  The news that SMRI and KCMEO had this relationship moved the legislature to change the state's Anatomical Gift Act (pdf doc).  The current decision held that the revised law requires whole organs to only go to hospitals, the only exception is if the "deceased or next of kin specifically expressed other wishes."

One of the net results of this ruling might be a "chilling effect" on organ donations.  At least that's the opinion of the head of LifeCenter Northwest, an organ transplant coordinating agency.  Diana Clark said the information that agencies might not have been abiding by donors' and next of kin's desires could make them "scared to sign up for donor lists."  And a source at the state Department of Licensing said that workers have been ill-equipped to do anything other than to mark yes or no on the block indicating license holders' desires to be organ donors.  They will be working on a follow up procedure where those who indicated they wanted to donate organs could specify what they mean.