Organs of Deceased Not Property of Next-of-Kin
The Ohio Supreme Court has ruled that the next-of-kin do not have a right to organs removed by county coroners after autopsies are completed, according to a 6-1 ruling by the Ohio Supreme Court.
The decision is a win for coroners and medical examiners in 87 of Ohio’s 88 counties who are facing a federal class-action lawsuit.In writing the decision, Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton went beyond the typical law library materials and consulted the Post Mortem Technique Handbook and The Color Atlas of the Autopsy. In about 5 percent of autopsies, brains are removed, hung upside down in a large container of fixing solution for up to six weeks, and then dissected after they’ve hardened. Dissection of the brain can yield information about tumors, strokes or contusions that may have led to death.
Autopsies are mandated when deaths are sudden, violent or suspicious and in some other circumstances. The bodies are sometimes returned to the next-of-kin without the brains or other tissues. That material is discarded as medical waste.
Trial attorneys in Hamilton County combed through stacks of county autopsy reports, searching for cases where brains had been removed and families likely had not been notified. They asked those families to join the federal lawsuit.
The federal court asked the Ohio Supreme Court to consider whether next-of-kin have a protected right under Ohio law to recover their loved ones’ organs and tissues after autopsies are done. The Supreme Court said Thursday, June 5, that there is no such right. Justice Paul Pfeifer dissented, saying a deceased’s remains are not mere property.
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