Experts Fear Inquiry Will Affect Donation of Bodies

Medical experts and directors of other Willed Body Programs fear that negative publicity from allegations that UC Irvine’s program improperly sold body parts and mishandled ashes could hamper donations to a vital medical service.

“I feel that the people who donate their bodies to science and their families--we owe them,” said Nina McCoy, coordinator of the Willed Body Program at Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona. “We owe them to treat their bodies with respect. We owe them dignity. These are heroes who aren’t on a monument or memorial in Washington, but they make things much better for the people who follow them.”

She added, “I guess what really offends me more than anything is if someone’s doing unethical things, it reflects poorly on Willed Body Programs. I hope it wouldn’t somehow hurt the image of Willed Body Programs. The donations are the best teachers and the best practice medical students can ever have.”

UC Irvine is already feeling the repercussions: at least one person has called the school and asked to be deleted from Irvine’s potential donor list, said Richard T. Robertson, chairman of the department of anatomy and neurobiology.

The university on Friday announced the dismissal of Christopher S. Brown, 27, the director of the school’s Willed Body Program. The district attorney has been called in to investigate suspicions that Brown improperly sold cadaver spines to an Arizona hospital, which paid $5,000 to a company the university doesn’t recognize. University officials also say Brown’s record-keeping is so jumbled that they cannot tell whether cremated ashes were disposed of properly. Brown has told The Times that he’s done nothing wrong.

The loss of potential donors is “a very real fear,” Robertson lamented Monday. “People who donate their bodies to the Willed Body Program do this as a noble gesture because they want to make a contribution to medical education and research. I think when there’s evidence that their very noble and generous gift isn’t being treated appropriately, it’s certainly going to give them second thoughts.”

How Willed Body Programs Work

Depending on how UC Irvine handles the scandal, Willed Body Programs could either be enhanced or hampered, said Tony Mazzaschi, assistant vice president for biomedical research at the Assn. of American Medical Colleges in Washington.

Irvine officials have outlined a plan of better supervision for the program, including a new computer system--with backup program--to track cadavers and ashes. To disperse oversight, the program may have two directors instead of one.

“Obviously in the Los Angeles area, it might harm programs,” Mazzaschi said. “These programs are somewhat obscure. If this is handled right, it may bring attention from people who have thought about [donating their bodies] but haven’t done it. . . . I don’t think anyone there is looking at a silver lining just yet. It’s too close to the storm to do that.”

Certainly, the probe casts light on a rather esoteric field--one many people would rather not think about.

Housed at about 100 universities nationwide, Willed Body Programs are the relatively unknown organizations that allow medical students to get hands-on experience in human anatomy classes. People must bequeath their bodies to such programs if they wish them used in scientific research.

Medical schools typically keep donor registries a few thousand names long and actually receive maybe 100 or so cadavers in a year. UC Irvine has handled between 60 and 70 bodies annually in recent years.

“One of the basic things the medical student has to learn is how the body works,” said James G. Tarwilliger, vice provost of administration for the UCLA School of Medicine and Medical Center. “We want people who are going to become doctors to understand in intimate detail how the human body works. The best manner in which to do that is to use human cadavers. I’m thankful there are people . . . willing to make the ultimate gift of their bodies when they die.”

As outlined on the UC Irvine’s Web site, the Willed Body Programs works like this:

People interested in donating their bodies first register with the program, with two family members or friends serving as witnesses. If the person lives close enough to the university--within a 50-mile radius--the university keeps a record of the potential donor’s name and the individual receives a “donor card” in the mail.

When the individual dies, the program is alerted. Arrangements are made to deliver the body to UC Irvine’s College of Medicine. Some bodies cannot be accepted--those too far away to transport or afflicted with some diseases, those that have been commercially embalmed or bodies that are coroners’ cases--suicides or unexplained deaths, for example.

Once the cadavers have been used, they’re cremated. The “cremains,” as they’re called, are either scattered at sea or returned to the family for a $600 handling and processing fee.

Directors at other universities said they were unfamiliar with such a large handling fee--at most, they charge for transportation costs. Irvine officials have said the $600 doesn’t cover the university’s costs.

Keeping Track of Donated Bodies

“That’s unheard of up here,” said Johnella Stevick, co-director of the Willed Body Program at Stanford University School of Medicine. “We return the ashes to the family. We pay for the cremation and if the family wants us to return them, they pay a nominal fee to mail the ashes back.”

At UCLA, families are not given the option of receiving ashes. Irvine may adopt the same policy, Robertson said.

“The issue of whether we will promise to return remains if asked, and, if so, whether there will be a fee, and, if so, how much--those are just some of the questions being evaluated by the dean’s office,” he said.

At other schools, officials said, bodies are carefully tracked from receipt of donation to cremation, several directors said. Each body is assigned a number and can be tracked down on a gurney in an anatomy lab if need be. That’s Irvine’s policy too, Robertson said, but the policy was not followed as it should have been.

At the University of Arizona College of Medicine, remains are stored indefinitely in individual plastic urns, in case someone comes looking for a beloved’s ashes. Director Grant Dahmer has talked with his university about building an underground mausoleum to house the urns.

To make sure donors aren’t forgotten, many Willed Body Programs include a memorial of sorts. At UCLA and UC Irvine, some first-year medical students hold memorial services for their donors. At Western University, director McCoy said she tosses rose petals and says a few words in memorial before she scatters remains at sea off the Los Angeles County coast.