Amid criticism that it was fueling a gold mine for eye parts, the Los Angeles County coroner said it will begin asking permission from next of kin before removing and selling corneas from the dead.
The decision effective Tuesday was announced Monday by Anthony Hernandez, the coroner's top administrator."The department as a whole will take a proactive approach in making contact with families, to ensure that they're aware of any corneal removals," Hernandez said.
Corneas, the transparent tissue that covers the iris and allows light to reach the pupil, disintegrate within 12 hours of death. State law allows coroners to remove them from the dead if survivors have no objections.
Corneas will still be removed and sold if the families cannot be found within a window of opportunity for transplant, Hernandez said, but his office will try harder to contact relatives.
During the past two years, Doheny Eye & Tissue Transplant Bank has paid the coroner's office between $215 and $335 per set of corneas. The eye bank resells them for $3,400 for transplants, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.
The practice is legal. But current and former employees at the coroner's office and Doheny described it as "immoral" and "repugnant" and said they were discouraged from getting survivors' permission in the rush to get corneas.
"If we were funneling corneas over for profit alone or because we were getting something out of it, then I would say that would be a horrendous ethical violation," Hernandez said. "We only do it to make sure that people get what they need so they can have a better quality of life."
The eye bank defended the practice, saying it had saved the sight of "tens of thousands."
Yolanda Aguirre, whose son's corneas were taken without her permission, said she was angry when she found out what happened. She wasn't comforted in knowing that Mitchell's corneas possibly gave sight to someone else.
"A lot of people need a lot of things," Aguirre said. "I need a million dollars but I don't take it from somebody. Those were my eyes. Those were my creation."
In the past five years, Tissue Banks International has given the coroner's office nearly $1.4 million for corneas and other tissues, the Times reported.