Couple to settle lawsuit over late son’s brain Research lab allegedly harvested organ without permission

PORTLAND – A Gorham couple has agreed to settle a lawsuit alleging that their late son’s brain was harvested without their permission.

Lawyers said the agreement ends Lorraine and Frank Gagnon’s case against the Maryland-based Stanley Medical Research Institute, its founder, the Bucksport man who coordinated the lab’s work in Maine, and his associate.

Terms have not been disclosed, and the final paperwork is still circulating. But lawyers said the settlement is expected to be signed later this week.

The Gagnons’ lawsuit, filed in Cumberland County Superior Court in April 2004, led to an ongoing state investigation of a brain-harvesting program in Maine that has since been suspended.

The Gagnons alleged the entire brain of their 28-year-old son, A.J., was taken without their consent when he died unexpectedly in April 2003.

Lorraine Gagnon said she limited her consent to a small sample of brain tissue. Matthew Cyr, who acted as the Stanley Institute’s representative in Maine, responded in a court document that Gagnon gave her permission.

Before the case was filed, the Stanley Institute turned down a $300,000 settlement proposal that would have included an apology.

The Stanley lab, based in Bethesda, Md., uses human brains in its research on mental illnesses, and it has sent more than 100,000 samples of brain tissue to researchers around the world, according to its Web site.

John Campbell, the Gagnons’ lawyer, declined to comment on what the Gorham family will receive in exchange for dropping their charges.

The lawsuit’s resolution will not be the final word on the brain-harvesting program that operated from the state medical examiner’s office from 1999 to 2003.

At least three other people have contacted Maine lawyers regarding their legal options. And the settlement could spur more lawsuits against the Stanley Institute, said Gordon Smith of the Maine Medical Association.

The Stanley Institute may be vulnerable to additional lawsuits because of unusual circumstances in the case, Smith said.

Smith, who has practiced health law for 25 years, noted the state has been unable to prove consent in nearly one-third of the 99 cases under investigation.

“If you haven’t got it in writing, and can’t really prove that the consent has been given, then you’re likely going to be the defendant in a lawsuit, and you’re likely going to lose,” Smith said.

The Maine Attorney General’s Office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Portland are examining whether any laws were broken in the program’s operation.