April 5, 2005
It's often been said that "a mind is a terrible thing to waste."
Today, that phrase takes on new meaning, especially for the residents of King County, Washington, who have recently discovered that their local Medical Examiner's office has been selling the brains of the recently deceased for profit without either their consent or the consent of their families.
I think the place to start may be in examining the motivation of the King County Medical Examiner's (M.E.) Office (or KCMEO) in functioning as a "brain broker."
According to the KIRO report, the agency received roughly $8,300 USD per brain, and nearly $1.49 million USD total since 1995. But the problem with money as a primary motivating factor is that much of the proceeds from the "brain business" went toward funding the salary of a pathologist and other technical resources in the years the M.E.'s office maintained its relationship with its sole customer for the organs, the Stanley Medical Research Institute (SMRI).
Practices within the office appear to have evolved over time to potentially allow the agency's employees to initiate and execute all the paperwork required to harvest the post-mortem brain tissue of the deceased without the explicit consent of the deceased's next-of-kin. That this evolution occurred indicates that the King County M.E.'s Office lacked the necessary internal controls to sustain its ability to perform its functions according to its contract with SMRI.
According to a press release issued by the King County Medical Examiner, Dr. Richard Harruff, in defense of the office's actions, it was noted that:
There was no financial incentive to acquire tissue samples, in other words there was no quota and no profit. All funds paid for the salary of a full-time pathologist and other costs to provide the capacity within the medical examiner’s office to take the samples when needed.
Finally, on another more damning note which is in direct conflict with Dr. Harruff's claim to the contrary, the agreement between SMRI and King County M.E.'s office (linked above) indicates that there was in fact a target (or quota) for the minimum number of specimens that would be provided by the agency:
It is mutually agreed between the parties hereto that the KCMEO will try and collect a minimum of 50 specimens during the calendar year.
Update (added 7 April 2005): KIRO has an e-mail written by a manager within the King County M.E.'s office further disputing Dr. Harruff's claim there were no quotas. Here are the details as reported through Seattle Weekly:
The management e-mail congratulated staffers for collecting "40 brains" in the first six months of the year, when they expected only 50 for "the entire year! This is great work."
https://politicalcalculations.blogspot.com/2005/04/brains-r-us.html#.Xl6tglDLfQE