King County Signed Contract to Profit From Autopsies: Selling Brains of Mentally Ill

Ron Sims & Alonzo Plough: What did they know, and when did they know it? Who did they tell?

Here is a link to the contract that was to be signed by King County Director of Public Health Dr. Alonzo Plough, which contains (apparently) the signature of someone else. This agreement outlines Stanley Medical Research Institute (SMRI) placing a doctor in the King County Medical Examiner(KCME) pathology facilities to harvest brain tissue from pathology examinations - with payment to KCME for doing so. This was an agreement made internal to KCME - there is no evidence from these documents that other government entitites exercised oversight over this relationship. Is Ron Sims exercising proper oversight of the KCME? What are the county guidelines for this kind of arrangement? What about the questions raised by the families in the KIRO report, noted below?

SMRI holds King County harmless from liability for actions of their employee - and SMRI agrees "to abide by Washington State laws and all other applicable laws, rules and regulations relating to data privacy or confidentiality..."

Consent forms needed to authorize the taking of brain tissue from deceased mentally ill patients are included with the contract at the link above. As the KIRO report indicates, those forms were not used - with KCME staff claiming they opted instead for telephone contact and verbal permission from next of kin/guardians. They relay on a section of RCW 68.50.550 that allows a phone call to be recorded, then "reduced to writing" and "signed by the recipient of the communication." Does this mean a transcript of the phone call/message? Hardly, the interpretation was watered down to the point where a staffer apparently signs off on a form that a phone call was made.

The contracts also outlines some $203,000 annually to the KCME to pay for a MD pathologist and other staff.

This link at KIRO News outlines the amounts paid to the KCME between 1995 and 2004.

Urbane Analysis: The questions raised here are obvious.

Where was the oversight by the King County Executive - and the King County Board of Public Health?

Where briefings given to elected officials to make them aware of this arrangement, and were hearings held by the Board of Public Health (as well as both the King County and Seattle City Councils - which share oversight of Public Health for citizens).

Like Watergate, the questions distill down to: what did they know and when did they know it? Where else does this happen around the United States?

Why don't Ron Sims and Alonzo Plough understand how morally wrong it is to trade in human flesh when the person involved has not authorized it? And to make it worse: the company is actually allowed to place its people inside the government facilities involved, in a collosal lack of judgement that eliminates effective oversight over those employees.

The KIRO report (below) raises more questions about the "culture" of government in our region - as it relates to serious breaches of ethics - which should be afforded to maintain dignity for the dead - and how that seriously devalues both the memories of people who fall under KCME "jurisdiction" as well as the impact such actions have on friends and families: those who remember.

What gave rise to this kind of "backroom" deal needs extensive investigations with public hearings, and well as review by ethicists, to ensure that the rights of families and the deceased are respected.

This is a serious breach of public trust. We need a truly independent Board of Medical Ethics conducting watchdog oversight of the King County Public Heath Department - an agency which is being "rubber stamped" by its own Board (made up of King County and Seattle City Council members).