Oct 1, 2010
Couple Allowed to Sue Morgue for Retaining Son’s Brain
The New York City Medical Examiner’s Office’s failure to inform a Staten Island couple that the office had removed and retained their late son’s brain violated the couple’s right of sepulcher, Brooklyn’s New York Appellate Division has ruled. Jesse Shipley, a 17-year-old Staten Island student, was killed in a car accident, and his father agreed to an autopsy. Two months later, classmates of Jesse’s sister were on a trip to Staten Island’s county mortuary and discovered a jar containing the brain with Shipley’s name printed on it.