According to a plea-bargaining agreement the State Prosecutor
recently reached with Professor Yehuda Hess, the director of
the Forensics Institute at Abu-Kabir, will receive a
reprimand for his part in the scandal surrounding the removal
of organs and tissues for research purposes from 125 bodies
brought for autopsies, says a report published in
Ha'aretz.
The scandal received extensive media coverage over the past
few years. A special Health Ministry commission and a police
investigation led to grave findings against Prof. Hess, who
allegedly acted illegally, harmed kovod hameis,
performed autopsies in violation of court orders, deceived
family members and Health Ministry officials and even tried
to document ex post facto the removal of bones taken
from bodies without consent—either from the deceased
while still alive or from the family members—for
research, instruction and display purposes.
A report by the Health Ministry's Segalson Commission
determined that the organs, tissues and bones taken from the
bodies were sent to the research department at the Institute
or to hospitals in exchange for payment used to cover the
cost of the autopsy. In other cases organs, tissues and bones
were taken for displays set up by various employees at the
Institute. In one case a doctor had a collection of skulls
pieced together from bone parts and a collection of pieces of
tattooed skin, including a large piece of skin taken from the
back of one body. "A museum of skulls was found at the
Institute, including those of soldiers shot in the head,"
said Judge Segalson during one of the Knesset meetings to
discuss the affair.
Following the investigations conducted by investigating
committees, restrictions were placed on Prof. Hess'
authority. But despite public demands to press criminal
charges against him, the State Prosecutor took only
disciplinary measures against him.
According to Ha'aretz, the plea-bargaining agreement
reached between Hess and the State Prosecutor during hearings
held at the Disciplinary Court for State Workers has yet to
receive court approval. The bill of complaint states that
Prof. Hess was in charge of all Institute activities,
including autopsies in accordance with the Anatomy and
Pathology Law.
According to the bill of complaint, between 1996 and 2000 the
Institute performed thousands of autopsies to determine the
cause of death and in 125 cases organs or tissues were
removed for use by various research organizations although
the family had not given consent and in some cases had even
objected. In 105 of the cases samples were taken for research
purposes based on the family members' consent to perform the
autopsy, without verifying whether they agreed to have tissue
samples removed permanently. In 13 cases tissue samples were
taken although the family gave consent to have an autopsy
performed only to determine the cause of death.
According to the report, in seven other cases samples were
taken based on court orders to perform autopsies to determine
the cause of death but without permission given to remove
tissues.
The State Prosecutor charged that Prof. Hess, "was negligent
in carrying out the task with which he was charged as
director and as a state worker, by refraining from setting
orderly work guidelines to ensure that the law was strictly
upheld in a manner that would prevent the removal of samples
for research without the explicit consent of the family
members . . . and was negligent in setting guidelines to
check the family members' consent for autopsies given at the
police station."
Several of the families of Prof. Hess' deceased victims
reacted harshly to the plea-bargaining agreement. Ora Berez,
the mother of Tamar Berez whose body was desecrated at Abu-
Kabir and whose jaw bones were buried at a different site
after being preserved at the Institute, called it "a shocking
cover-up."
"From the very beginning I was disappointed with the State
Prosecutor, who did not file a criminal indictment against
[Hess] following the Segalson Commission as the police
recommended," Berez said Monday. "This is an insult to all of
the victims. On the other hand, finally there is an
admission. The Health Ministry defended him all along and he
did not accept any responsibility, claiming he acting in
accordance with the Anatomy and Pathology Law."
An irate reaction was also issued by the family of a boy from
Dimona whose body was autopsied and a pathologist from
Denmark later discovered that several organs had been removed
from the boy and had disappeared. "First of all Hess has to
go," said the father, "and an upstanding person brought in to
replace him. A reprimand is not a sufficient punishment for
him for all of the thefts and the suffering he caused us and
many other families. I think a man like this should be
sitting in jail."
