UCI May Not Return Ashes

UCI might stop returning ashes of bodies donated to the medical school as part of reforms intended to prevent problems that led to suspension of the Willed Body Program this month.

Dr. Peter Lawrence, a top medical school official assigned to revamp the program, said there has been little outrage expressed by callers about the scandal but considerably more concern among donors that suspension of the program will prevent UCI from accepting their bodies.

The temporary closure of the program, which came after its director was dismissed for allegedly profiting from the sale of body parts, has prompted calls from a small number of the 2,805 people signed up as donors, said Lawrence, an associate dean of the College of Medicine.

Only two have asked to be dropped from the program, he said, and four donor survivors were upset after reading about the possible sale of body parts, he said.

On the positive side, 10 donors who called were “concerned about the program being shut down,” and another 10 called to express interest in donating, he said.

The donors have been told that their bodies cannot go to UCI during the suspension. The university will contact another donor program if necessary.

“It has been a satisfying response from our standpoint,” he said. “It indicates that people are able to separate in their minds the value of a willed body program from the actions of a single employee.”

Lawrence, who joined the school last fall, also is a professor of surgery and vice president of UCI Medical Center. Medical school Dean Thomas Cesario assigned him the high-profile task of restructuring the Willed Body Program early this month, two weeks before the university publicly announced it was investigating allegations against former Director Christopher S. Brown.

Brown, who has been fired, is suspected of profiting from the sale or use of cadavers and body parts donated to the medical school as well as steering work to friends, his wife and associates. Brown has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and maintains that he kept his supervisor informed of his actions.

Lawrence said program changes would include requiring more paperwork and documented communication between the program director and the faculty supervisor. Professor Richard Robertson, who is chairman of the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology and who supervised the program, said he trusted Brown and did not closely supervise him. University officials have said much of their communication was verbal.

These officials, including Lawrence, have defended Robertson, saying Brown abused his trust, but Lawrence suggested that supervision of Brown also was flawed.

“It was based on a sense of trust, and in a large organization with many people it can’t be based exclusively on trust and it can’t be based on verbal communication,” he said.

The medical school anticipates reopening the program in November, he said. Final decisions on restructuring the program, including new regulations and stricter oversight, are scheduled to be completed by Nov. 1 and will involve a committee of deans and faculty members.

Revisions in the program also will include setting strict priorities for who gets access to the approximately 75 bodies donated annually. Some are kept for research and instruction and others are sold to other institutions for similar uses.

In revising the program, the panel will have to set priorities on who could get cadavers or body parts, including whether they would continue to be sold. Prices for UCI body parts ranged from $850 for a full cadaver to $600 for a head to $200 for legs below the knee.

The university also must decide whether to continue offering donors the option of receiving their remains as ashes.

If UCI decides to end the option of returning ashes, it would be following in the steps of UCLA’s school of medicine, which discontinued the practice in February. Henry Reid, who runs the Willed Body Program at UCLA, said that decision came in part because families were often not interested two or more years later when the body no longer was needed.

Lawrence said the returning of ashes creates logistic problems, especially when bodies are kept for years or a part--such as an arm or a leg--is used separately from the rest of the body. In addition, there is the issue of closure for families, which is easier to achieve if the option is not offered.