Tasmanian government apologises over stolen body parts scandal

Her brother David Maher died in 1976, aged 14, in a car accident and when she found out that his body parts were part of the investigation, she was devastated."It's been absolutely a nightmare from that moment we were told."That disbelief has also been felt by John Santi, who was 13 in 1976 when his older brother Tony died, aged 19, in a motorcycle accident."We buried him 50 years ago, only to find out 50 years later that these people had stolen his brain," Santi told Australian Associated Press (AAP). Concerns about specimens displayed at the University of Tasmania RA Rodda Museum in Hobart were first raised in 2016 after three bone samples were suspected of having been obtained without the consent of family members.This led to the state coroner ordering an investigation into the museum's collection in April 2023, and after months of inquiries, the findings were handed down in September.Coroner Simon Cooper found that the "now-dead forensic pathologist Dr Royal Cummings was the person who provided the large majority of coronial specimens to the museum"."However, it also appears that his predecessors and successors also engaged in the practice," Cooper said last year.