Four more lawsuits filed in brain harvesting cases

PORTLAND ? Four more lawsuits were filed Tuesday against a Maryland research laboratory and its founder by families alleging that their dead relatives’ brains were taken without proper authorization.

Eight lawsuits have now been filed against Stanley Medical Research Institute of Bethesda, Md. The Lewiston law firm of Berman & Simmons, which has filed all the lawsuits, said it expected to file a ninth case later in the week in Kennebec County Superior Court.

Tuesday’s lawsuits, filed in Cumberland, Penobscot and Somerset County superior courts, make accusations that are similar to previous lawsuits.

The surviving family members, from South Portland to northern Penobscot County, said they received phone calls in the hours after their loved ones died and the bodies had been transported to the state medical examiner’s office for autopsies.

Each family said they were not asked to donate the entire brain, but instead something smaller, like a sample of brain tissue, or the request was unclear.

“This isn’t a finger. This isn’t an eye. This is their brain,” said Steven Silin, the plaintiffs’ lawyer. “I think any feeling person would find these facts horrific. And similarly, any thinking person is going to conclude that these defendants acted recklessly and for their own personal or professional gain.”

Byrne Decker, a Portland lawyer who represents the Stanley Institute and its founder, Dr. E. Fuller Torrey, said he had not seen the new lawsuits. He reiterated an earlier statement that his clients always acted in good faith.

Also named as defendants in the cases were Matthew Cyr, the state’s one-time funeral inspector who was paid $1,000 to $2,000 by the Stanley Institute for each brain donation he solicited in Maine, and Lorie Stevens, who often signed documents as a witness to the family’s consent.

Lawyers for Cyr could not be reached for comment. Joseph Baiungo, a Belfast lawyer who represents Stevens, said that his client’s involvement in the brain-harvesting operation was quite limited.

From 1999 to 2003, at least 99 brains were sent from the state medical examiner’s office to the Stanley Institute, which uses its brain bank for research on the causes of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.