Families v Augusta Medical Examiner's Office
Brains May have Been Harvested at Augusta, Maine Medical Examiner's Office
A lawsuit filed March 29, 2005 asks that damages be paid to dozens of unnamed families whose loved ones' brains were sent from Maine to a Maryland research institute.
The case, filed in U.S. District Court in Portland, alleges wrongdoing in the harvesting of brains at the state Medical Examiner's Office in Augusta.
An estimated 99 families share similar circumstances. One plaintiff, Anne Mozingo, is named in the case, filed by Gregory Hansel of the Portland law firm Preti Flaherty.
Mozingo, of York, says that after her husband's death from a brain aneurysm five years ago, she consented to donate only tissue samples, not his entire brain. "I'm filing this suit because I want to stand up for what is right," she said. "This case is about a lack of respect for the living and a lack of respect for the dead."
