Organ Retention Litigation

The common practice of retaining organs and tissues after the autopsy dissection is a potential legal liability for forensic pathologists and the offices they work for. In 1988, a coroner and the coroner’s office were successfully sued for corneal procurements without the consent of the next of kin. That led to later lawsuits of forensic pathologists and medical examiner offices over the retention of brains for formalin fixation and neuropathologic examination without consent, although the autopsies were not consent based. National Association of Medical Examiners became involved in this ligation and filed numerous amicus briefs. These later lawsuits were not successful. After caselaw on the subject, such lawsuits have largely abated. Nonetheless, the threat of such lawsuits remains, and statutory language can be promulgated to mitigate the risk.