Coroner Profits Without Consent From Tissue Sales

Team 7 Investigation: King County Trades Human Brains For Money

Chris Halsne
KIRO 7 Eyewitness News Investigative Reporter

SEATTLE -- The King County Medical Examiner's Office has been harvesting brains from the corpses of mentally ill clients and quietly trading the tissue for money, KIRO Team 7 Investigators report.

In the past seven years, the medical examiner's office received more than $1 million for collecting brains of people with schizophrenia.

In return for the money, county pathologists shipped at least 180 brains to a private research facility.

A Team 7 Investigation raises serious questions about consent: Why didn't next of kin know about the financial arrangement?

Folks on Vashon Island called him "Cool Gary," a local schizophrenic who loved hitchhiking and playing practical jokes.

When Gary died jumping into traffic in November 1998, his body wound up at the King County Morgue.

Less than 72 hours later, Gary's brain was removed and mailed to Bethesda, Md. It became property of The Stanley Medical Research Institute, a multimillion-dollar company that studies mental disorders.

"I can't believe what is happening here," said Bill Lynn, Gary's father.

Bill Lynn says he's never heard of Stanley. He at first thought KIRO Team 7 Investigators were kidding when we showed him proof that King County profited from harvesting his son's brain.

"You're crazy! I didn't raise my kids to sell 'em. This is unreasonable. Why would I agree with any hospital or anybody to receive any money for any body parts? No way! I'm just not built that way," Lynn said.

So what about this written "consent form" provided to KIRO Team 7 Investigators by King County as proof that Bill authorized the brain donation?

"Something is rotten in Denmark, that's for sure. No, I never, I didn't sign anything. That's not my writing here," Lynn said.

Here's what Lynn says did happen: The Medical Examiner's office called on the phone, asking for a "skin and brain tissue donation."

"They didn't tell me they were going to sell it. I'd have said 'no' right off the bat," said Lynn.

Lynn's story is a familiar one. KIRO Team 7 Investigators contacted a half dozen families, which we confirmed had donated brains via King County. None knew of Stanley. None knew of money changing hands.

"It was my feeling that they were maybe going to run some tests on his brain tissue," said Vicki Hendricks.

Hendricks's son Jim died suddenly at 36 years old. She gave permission for King County to take brain "samples" thinking they needed them to determine cause of death. Jim's whole brain instead ended up at Stanley Medical.

"Those are public servants, people we rely on to be there for us, and if you can't feel comfortable with them, then it's kind of scary," Hendricks said.

Under the Open Records Act, KIRO Team 7 Investigators asked King County for documents surrounding what's known around the morgue as "The Stanley Project."

Contracts vary a little each year, but the one in 2003 said "the KCME will try to collect a minimum of 50 specimens." For those efforts, Stanley sent big monthly checks to the medical examiner's office -- far exceeding the true costs of removing and shipping brains.

"That's a huge breach of public trust," said Dr. Elliot Stern.

Stern is a recognized expert in donation ethics. He says King County has big trouble ahead. If next-of-kin are not fully informed, courts consider that no consent at all.

"I would not have made a donation," Dr. Stern said. "I don't know a reasonable person who would have made a donation knowing money was going to change hands and enter county coffers in excess of harvesting costs."

Lynn feels betrayed and is clearly angry about the lack of full disclosure.

"Those butchers over there, I wonder how many body parts they salvaged off him," Lynn said.

KIRO Team 7 Investigators have uncovered a discrepancy between the number of brains sent to Stanley and the number of brain donor consent forms on file at King County. More brains were shipped than consent forms. That means some next-of-kin may not have been contacted at all.

Nobody at the medical examiner's office has yet agreed to an interview, but a spokesperson told us on the phone that the King County Medical Examiner's Office broke no laws by using a simple phone call to request brain donations.

He also said the money exchanged was a "grant," not a payment made per brain, and that there were no "quotas" for brains, just "goals."

KIRO Eyewitness News Update: more families step forward in protest, and say they were never consulted when their family members brains were taken at autopsy.