U. vindicated in case over misusing patients' brains

The University was dismissed recently as a defendant in a lawsuit arising from claims that Medical School doctors used dead patients' brains without the consent of the patients' families. For the past two years, the University has been involved in numerous suits filed by the parents of deceased men and women who supposedly had their brains sent to the University by the city medical examiner without their consent. University outside counsel William Jannsen said the case against the University was dropped last month after one body was exhumed in North Carolina, with the brain intact. Jannsen said he and Linda Berman, an attorney for one of the plaintiffs, flew down to Hollister, N.C. last month to witness the exhumation and autopsy of Thomas Seabron. The autopsy's results concluded that the brain had not been removed from the body since Seabron died. "The University was summarily dismissed from the case," Jannsen said. General Counsel Shelly Green said she was pleased with the outcome of the case, but she is still concerned about the five or more other cases still pending in court. "It was appropriate for the University to be dismissed," Green said. "Obviously, if the brains weren't removed it would be impossible for the University to be at fault." The case, which was filed in March 1993 by Doris Jackson, Seabron's mother, claimed that her son's brain was removed without cause and without her consent and sent to the University. Jackson's suit was not only filed against the University, but the city of Philadelphia as well. The charges against the city were dropped last year. The brains in question were supposedly sent from the city medical examiner's office to the University as part of an agreement between Deputy Medical Examiner Ian Hood and Medical School Neuroscience Professor Alan Rosenquist. The brains were allegedly sent to the Medical School so students could study the brains and determine how the deaths occurred. The turning point for the University came earlier this year when a statement, released by Assistant Medical Examiner Bennett Preston, said he recalled putting Seabron's brain back in the body. Records from the suits show that 26 brains were sent from the medical examiner's office to the University Medical School between December 1990 and May 1991. Seabron died in a motorcycle accident about three years ago at the age of 26. Following the autopsy, his body was taken back to North Carolina to be reburied. Several suits against the University are still pending in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court. The Philadelphia Inquirer contributed to this article.

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