Suit vs. brain collection program seeks class-action status
Kin say consent wasn't obtained
PORTLAND, Maine -- A lawsuit targeting a brain collection operation in Maine seeks class- action status against a Maryland research lab and other parties, contending that they failed to obtain informed consent for the organ donations.
The lawsuit, filed in US District Court, seeks unspecified damages for the families of each of the 99 deceased Maine residents from whom brains were taken between 1999 and 2003.
It contends that the Stanley Medical Research Institute of Bethesda, Md., engaged in a pattern of approaching survivors during a time of grief and requesting the donation of tissue samples. Instead, entire brains were shipped to Bethesda, the lawsuit argues.
''These families were consistently taken advantage of during a profound time of grief," said Greg Hansel, a Portland attorney who brought the lawsuit.
A lawyer representing the Stanley institute and its associate director for laboratory research, Dr. E. Fuller Torrey, said they expect their clients to prevail.
''We feel that the institute will be vindicated when the facts come out in light of the law under which it operates," said Tom Laprade, the institute's lawyer.
In order for the lawsuit to become class-action, a federal judge would have to determine that all of the families share similar circumstances.
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.
The defendants named in the lawsuit include Maine's former funeral inspector, Matthew Cyr of Bucksport, who collected $150,000 from the Stanley institute for his efforts, and an associate of Cyr's who witnessed phone calls seeking consent.
The lawsuit was brought on behalf of Anne Mozingo, a former reporter for the Portsmouth Herald, who said she consented to donate only tissue samples, not her late husband's entire brain.
Mozingo, 42, of York, Maine, said she took notes during a telephone solicitation on April 25, 2000, from Cyr after her husband died from a brain aneurysm. She learned later that her husband's entire brain was taken.
''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."
