I’ve occasionally blogged about the privacy of the dead and families’ rights with respect to the dead. Some parents have been shocked and distraught to discover that when their child’s body was released to them, body organs might have been missing as they were still undergoing testing. But when the testing is done, the coroner’s offices may just dispose of the body parts in ways that families find disturbing. This story out of NYC would probably seriously disturb any family:
It was in January of 2005 when their son, Jesse, a 17-year-old student at Port Richmond High School, a passenger in a car, was killed in an accident. After an autopsy, the body was released to the family for burial.
But imagine the family’s shock two months later when they learned that a high school field trip to the morgue, involving some of their son’s own friends, noticed Jesse’s brain in a jar.
“Friends who were there saw the brain in a jar, displayed with his name labeled on it,” Andre said.
The ME’s office told the parents the brain was held for tests with other brains, but the parents said they were never informed. So, the parents won a court order for the return of the organ, and their son was buried a second time.
Read more on CBS.