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Science 30 May 2003:
Vol. 300. no. 5624, p. 1368
DOI: 10.1126/science.300.5624.1368b
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Researchers obtained the brains of more than 21,000 dead people in the United Kingdom between 1980 and 2000-- without the knowledge or consent of families, according to a government report released on 12 May. Some scientists fear the news could lead to new laws that will restrict research involving human tissues.

Medical authorities launched an investigation into the issue in 1991, after a Manchester widow discovered that her husband's brain had been removed, in violation of her instructions, after his suicide in 1987. The investigation widened to hospitals across the country, revealing that brains have been routinely removed from the dead without notifying family members. The report puts the blame on researchers' practice of making private arrangements with coroners to get brains after postmortems.

Thousands of the organs were taken from people with mental illnesses, and patient advocacy groups are fuming. The backlash could "decimate" the search for cures for schizophrenia and other devastating disorders, warns Marjorie Wallace, founder of SANE, a London-based mental health charity. "There is already an acute shortage" of brains in the U.K., she says, which has forced many researchers to obtain tissue from other countries. Others "feel so stigmatized that they have ceased investigations," she says.

In response to this and an earlier report detailing improper removal of organs from dead children (Science, 6 December 2002, p. 1867), the Department of Health is planning new legislation regarding human tissues. A government spokesperson says no details are yet available.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)