Opinion letter to M. D. Overholser , M.D.

Opinion No . 199 (1964) No . 7 ( 1965)) Answered by Letter-Denman rILED 7 \ M. D. OVerholser, M.D. Secretary February 3, 1965 Missouri State Anatomical Boaro Columbia, Missouri Dear Dr. Overholser: This 1s 1n answer to your request for an op1.n1on or th.1s office aa to whether the Immaculate Conception Clinic of Structural Medicine located in Kansas City, Missouri, herein aalled the "Clinic" is entitled to receive unclaimed dead bocU.es from the Missouri State Anatomical Board. The disposition of' unclaimed bo41es by the Anatomical Board is governed by Sections 194.120 - 194.18o, RSMo 1959. Section 194.120 provides in partt "1. That the heads of' departments ot anatoJD¥, professors and aaaoo1ate pro- fessors of anato~ at the eduoatlonal 1natitutJ.ons ot the stat. ot Missouri wh.ioh are now or may hereatter become incorporated, an4 in which said educational institutions human ana~ is investigated or taught to students in attendance at said eduoational institutions, shall be and hereby are constituted the Missouri State Anatomio&l Board, • • •• 112. !he boa.rd ahall have exclusive charge and control of' the disposal and delivery Of d.e&d human bodieS 1 &8 described in sections 194.120 to 194.18o, to and among such educational 1nat1 tutione as under the provisions or said :sections are ent1 tled thereto." M. D. Overholser, M.D. -2- Sections 194.130, 194.140 and 194.160 set out the procedure by which proper educational institutions desiring to receive dead bodies may do so. Inasmuch as the Clinic baa indicated its ability and willingness to comply with this procedure, the question is: Is the Clinic a proper educational institution as defined in Section 194.120 entitled to receive dead human bodiea? The Clinic is operated by one Dr. E.J. Auckley, who is registered in this state as a Doctor of Osteopathy. In a letter to the Board, Dr. Auckley stated tru..t the Clinic is an incor- porated college chartered to t each the Marian Method of Structural Manipulation to be used primarily for the treatment of poliomyelitis and related diseases. The work involves strict manual manipulation of the muscul,o-skeletal system and no internal medicine, O.B. or surgery is used by a gra4uate of the school unless he holds an M.D. degree. The course is a seven year course and a graduate thereof is awarded a D.S .M. degree which apparently means Doctor of Structural Manipulation. Dr. Auckley states that at this time, he has only one student who is in her sixth year or college and one graduate student that will study dissection with the first student. An investigator tor the Anatomical Board investigated the facilities at the Clinic and in a letter to the Board, among other things, atate.d: "Dr. Auckley, owner of the school, met me and showed me to a two room house just south of his 11 ving qua:rters. One of the rooms was a bedroom that occupied by a small child, a patient or Dr. Aukleys. '1'he other room, measuring approximately 12 by 16 rt.# waa being used as living quarters by a Miss Shirley Granger, the one student that the School has enrolled. "This room was turnishe.d with a range, refrigerator, sink, table and cha1.rs, divan:~ rocking chairs, etc. '1'he type or t'urnishings one would expect to find in a combination kitchen, dining and living .area. I M. D. Overholser, M.D. -3- "There was no evidence of any provisions to care for cadaver material. When asked, Dr. Auckley stated that the cadaver would be kept 1n this r oom and that the teaching and dissection would be done here also . "At the time of my visit there were no facilities available f or teaching human anatomy by dissection of human material and no indication that ~ would be pro- vided in the near future. • It is also our understanding that Miss Grange-r is a victim of polio and is being treated by Dr. Auckley as a patient. Tbe statutes authorizing the distribution of dead bodies do not provide a definition or the term "educational inatitution", nor do we attempt in this letter t o provide a comprehensive defin- ition of the term. However, \'le do not teel that t he Clinic as it ia no,., operated constitutes such an educational institution either in its generally accepted meaning or as it is used 1n t he statutes . The pertinent statutes contemplate an "institution 11 \'lhere students are given a formal education in the anatomy or the human body by teachers and professors trained tc give such an education. It would be unreasonable to find th&.t the statutes were intended to include a "Clinic" which consists of a t wo-roam outbuilding with no teaching or clinical facilities with one or t wo semi-student patients taught by a person, who although a doctor of' osteopathy, has not provided any record or any training in the field of education. The applicable statutes also seem to contemplate a careful and orderly disposal of dead bodies f or educational purposes. Again it would be unreasonable to f'ind that the Board would be required to distribute dead bodies t o anyone who purports to set up an educational institution regardless of' whether this "institution 11 has any facilities of usi.ng or keeping such bodies . Therefore, in our opinion, t he Immaculate Conception Clinic is not an educational institution as t he term is used in Sections 194.120 - 194.180 and is not entitled t o receive a dead human body under provisions of these statutes. JHD:kd Very truly yours, NORMlN H. ANDERSON Attorney General