Suit claims U. misuses free brains

Dead bodies. Stolen brains. Medical research. Sounds like the ingredients for a horror movie, but these elements actually came together at the University, according to a lawsuit filed against the city medical examiner's office, the University and Medical School Neuroscience Professor Alan Rosenquist. Records show that between December 1990 and May 1991, 25 brains were sent from the medical examiner's office to the University as part of an agreement between Deputy Medical Examiner Ian Hood and Rosenquist, who wanted the brains for his students. The University was to conduct further study of the brains to determine if they were the cause of the deaths. But records show that all of the brains, but one, were found to be normal and the suit alleges that the 25 brains were removed without cause and without relatives' consent. It also alleges that the brains were used for dissection in Rosenquist's anatomy classes. In the latest chapter of this macabre story, Common Pleas Court Judge Charles Mararchi last month ordered the city to turn over the names and case histories of 24 people whose brains were removed and sent to the Med School for dissection. In October 1992, the city promised to disclose the names of the corpses, but failed to do so. Now, Mararchi has said the city must release the names, causes of death, autopsy reports and the names and addresses of next of kin of the 24 within the next few days or face sanctions. With Mararchi's ruling, the class-action suit filed in the summer of 1992 by Emeline Buell has cleared a major legal hurdle. Buell's attorney, Dennis Adams, said he would have been unable to pursue a class-action suit without the names of the other people whose brains were removed. The suit, which uses Buell to represent the relatives of the deceased, alleges that after her 23-year old son, Emanuel Johnson, was killed in a January 1991 shooting his brain was removed by the Medical Examiner without her permission, violating a state law barring abuse or mistreatment of a corpse. City attorneys have argued that the 24 names and records are not public information and releasing them would violate doctor-patient confidentiality statutes. They also say in court records that state law gives the city immunity from suits for any error that the medical examiner may have made. Medical Examiner Haresh Mirchandani and the city have claimed that all of the brains were sent to the University for "further analysis" as part of legally authorized autopsies. They claim the University could provide a better examination than the medical examiners. But in Johnson's case, police reports indicate he was shot in the torso and Abrams has found documents stating that Johnson's brain had "no gross pathology" that could have contributed to the cause of death. Buell's complaint states that Mirchandani, Rosenquist and the University acted "beyond the scope of their authority" in transferring the brains to the University. This transferal is the critical point of contention in the suit. The University claimed in answering the complaint that the Med School had received the brains but that they were acting under the assumption that the transfer was legal. They also contend that the brains were never dissected by Rosenquist's classes. Rosenquist said yesterday he could not comment on the case and University officials referred all questions to General Counsel Shelly Green. But neither Green nor the University's outside counsel, William Jantsen, could be reached for comment yesterday. In another case pending against the University, Philadelphia resident Doris Jackson claims that the brain of her son, Thomas Seaborn, was removed without cause and without her consent and sent to the University. But Med School officials have testified that Seaborn's brain was never received by the University. Seaborn was killed in a motorcycle crash on March 30, 1991. A funeral director testified that Seaborn's brain was not in his skull when he picked the body up at the morgue and city officials say they do not know the brain's location. No one from the City Law Office was available to answer questions about the case.