Fourth lawsuit filed over harvesting of brains
Associated Press
PORTLAND, Maine — A fourth lawsuit filed against an alleged brain harvesting operation in Maine seeks class-action status and asks that damages be paid to dozens of unnamed families whose loved ones' brains were taken.
Filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Portland, the lawsuit alleges wrongdoing in the harvesting of brains at the medical examiner´s office in Augusta. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for the families of every decedent whose brain was harvested in Maine between 1999 and 2003.
One plaintiff is named in the case brought by attorney Gregory Hansel. Anne Mozingo, of York, says she only consented to donate tissue samples, not her late husband's entire brain, after he died of an aneurysm five years ago.
Mozingo, 42, is a former reporter for the Portsmouth Herald newspaper. She says she took notes during an April 25, 2000, telephone call seeking her donation to the Stanley Medical Research Institute of Bethesda, Md.
Lawyers for the Stanley institute and its associate director for laboratory research, Dr. E. Fuller Torrey, said they expect their clients to prevail.
Tom Laprade, who represents the institute, said that as with previous lawsuits, "we feel that the institute will be vindicated when the facts come out in light of the law under which it operates."
The defendants named in the lawsuit include Maine´s former funeral inspector Matthew Cyr and an associate who witnessed phone calls seeking consent.
Mozingo, whose husband died of a brain aneurysm five years ago, she didn´t give much thought to Cyr´s donation request until she was contacted by investigators.
"I'm filing this suit because I want to stand up for what is right," she said.
"This case is about a lack of respect for the living and a lack of respect for the dead."
A federal judge would have to determine that all of an estimated 99 families share similar circumstances in order for the lawsuit to become class-action.
The Stanley institute uses its brain bank for research on the causes of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The lab is suspending its brain-collection efforts nationwide for reasons unrelated to the controversy in Maine.
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Information from: Portland Press Herald: www.pressherald.com
(Hat Tip to Chaps, much obliged!)
1 comment:
King County has a host of problems at the Medical Examiner's Office that have come to light recently. I'm glad some people are standing up for what is right. It's a cinch our elected officials aren't. Please be sure to keep up on this for us.
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