Policies give program hope
By Shaun Bishop
Oct. 25, 2005 9:00 p.m.
UCLA’s willed body program, shut down last year after its
director was accused of selling body parts for profit, may reopen
as soon as today, officials said.
Superior Court Commissioner Bruce E. Mitchell said in a short
hearing Tuesday the program could reopen and that he was pleased
with the changes officials have made in the wake of the scandal,
according to a UCLA press release.
Lawyers representing relatives of body donors agreed to a
preliminary injunction that would allow the program, which accepted
donated bodies for medical research, to reopen provided it complied
with new regulations drawn up by lawyers and University of
California officials.
Those regulations include new rules for using and disposing of
cadavers, a centralized tracking system for donated bodies,
systemwide donor forms, and written guidelines regulating security
and personnel.
Papers allowing the program’s immediate opening could be
signed by Mitchell as soon as today, university spokeswoman Roxanne
Moster said.
Dr. Allen Nissenson, who heads the program, said he was
“very pleased” with Tuesday’s decision.
“We’ve worked very hard to get the program to a
point where we thought it was appropriate to ask the court to take
that action, so we’re very happy with the decision,” he
said.
In the next several months, a more permanent agreement could be
signed which would track the program’s implementation of the
new requirements over a period of 18 months.
If it passed that test, the injunction could be lifted
completely.
Moster said the UCLA program will not actually be accepting
donated cadavers until sometime next year, in part because of
ongoing construction at the willed body facility.
In the meantime, officials will be focused on implementing the
new policies developed by the UC, Nissenson said.
UCLA also plans to implement an electronic tracking system for
donated cadavers by Feb. 1, 2006.
“We have a lot of work to do still even thought we
won’t be accepting new cadavers for the time being,”
Nissenson said.
Bodies donated to UCLA’s program will be diverted to other
UC campuses with willed body programs until UCLA’s program
can return to full operation.
The arrest of former Willed Body Program director Henry Reid in
March 2004 for grand theft in connection with the selling of body
parts sparked a class-action lawsuit against the program.
The program was suspended indefinitely a month later. No
criminal charges have been filed and an investigation is
ongoing.
An earlier lawsuit had been filed in 1996 by relatives of
cadaver donors, alleging that remains were being disposed of
improperly. An appellate court judge dismissed that suit last
month, saying the plaintiffs did not have enough evidence of the
illegal disposal.
A second part of the same lawsuit was filed by future body
donors who seek to ensure their remains would be disposed of
properly.
That suit, along with the 2004 suits, are still pending.
Mike Arias, a lawyer representing plaintiffs from both lawsuits,
said Tuesday’s agreement was “a culmination of our
litigation over several years to improve the way the willed body
program operates.”
Arias said the development of the guidelines to regulate the
program and the acknowledgement from the UC Board of Regents that
reforms needed to be made were key factors in the plaintiffs’
agreement to an injunction allowing the program to reopen.
“We feel we’ve accomplished some part of what
we’ve sought to obtain” for the relatives involved,
Arias said.
“Now we know it serves a good social purpose and service
to the public to have this exist. We’re happy that it’s
going to reopen.”
Arias said the ongoing lawsuits from relatives seeking damages
in connection to alleged illegal activities within the willed body
program would not be affected by Tuesday’s decision.
The program, founded in 1950, had been receiving about 175
bodies per year before the 2004 scandal.
