Wash. High Court Allows Brain Harvesting Claim to Move Forward

The Washington Supreme Court on Thursday revived a suit brought by a mother who objected to the removal of her deceased son's brain for medical research.

Nancy Adams' son Jesse Smith was an organ donor. But when Adams gave permission for a pathologist to take a sample of Smith's brain tissue, she apparently didn't realize she was consenting for his entire brain to be removed and samples taken from his liver and spleen, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports.

The state supreme court's decision holds that a lower-court judge erred last year when it dismissed all of Adams' claims against the King County Medical Examiner's Office and the Stanley Medical Research Institute in Maryland.

While Smith was an organ donor, the court ruled that state law didn't permit Stanley Medical to take Smith's brain.

The Post-Intelligencer reports that Adams' lawsuit is one of several pending against Stanley Medical, which does mental illness research.

The Adams suit and local reporting on the subject prompted lawmakers to revise the way in which organ donations are specified. Now donors can designate whether their organs can be used for transplants, research or education.

Adams has maintained her son, who died of heart failure in 2003, only intended to donate in order to help living individuals.