Friday, June 01, 2007

Melican v. Regents of UC (Cal. Ct. App. - May 23, 2007)

"Sure, we may have -- indeed, undeniably did -- mishandle, mistreat, and sell body parts for profit, all of which we weren't supposed to do. And, yes, you gave your body to us solely for teaching purposes, and we're totally sure that a lot of the bodies that were given to us were misused for other purposes. Indeed, we can't account for the vast majority of the bodies that were given to us; of the 441, we only know what we did with 121, and the other 320 may well have been totally misused. But, guess what: we (smartly) didn't keep records of which particular bodies we illegally misused. So we get summary judgment when you sue us. 'Cause, yeah, we mangled a lot of them, but no individual person can prove that their particular body was sold for parts. So everyone loses but us."


That's what the UC Regents say. The trial court grants summary judgment. And Justice Aronson affirms.