Ohio Supreme Court debates rights to body parts after autopsy

[The Straight Story]

Ohio Supreme Court debates rights to body parts after autopsy

By JULIE CARR SMYTH


COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- The parents of Christopher Albrecht say they had the right to bury their son with his brain intact instead of it being permanently removed at his autopsy.

But lawyers representing county coroners told the Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday that medical examiners would be reticent to do thorough autopsies if justices granted property rights to families.

At issue is whether the brain, heart and other body parts removed during an autopsy should be returned to the relatives of the deceased instead of being destroyed as medical waste.

Albrecht, 30, died in December 2001 when he suddenly plunged his vehicle into a pond. The coroner determined that an epileptic seizure prompted his accident, but that his death was caused by drowning.

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