A significant lawsuit has opened up in Maine over consent in the harvesting of brains for research. Anne Mozingo is suing the Maryland Stanley Medical Research Institute and their representatives in Maine, Matthew Cyr. Her husband’s brain was one of at least ninety-nine brains of bipolar and schizophrenic patients to be harvested by Mr. Cyr for research after death. Ms. Mozingo claims that she was tricked into thinking that her husband was only providing some brain tissue, not the entire brain, and is suing the Institute and Mr. Cyr personally for deceiving her. Between 1999 and 2003, Mr. Cyr was paid $150,000 for brains. A full discussion can be found in the Washington Post here.
Commentary
Public Domain
I don’t have any position on what actually happened in this case, but there are a few important lessons to be learned from it for both patients and researchers. First, it is very important to ensure in any organ donation that one knows exactly what one is donating. Not everyone is comfortable with their entire brain being used for scientific research, and if you are not, make sure that it won’t happen by accident. The second lesson is for scientific institutes themselves. Purchasing organs for large amounts of money from men who also happen to work for the coroner’s office is potentially damaging to one’s reputation. It is important to ensure that, at the very least, consent documents are properly understood, signed and filed.
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