Dr. Michael Stewart and Los Alamos Medical Center

Los Alamos, NM: (Apr-03-07) A class action lawsuit was brought against former Los Alamos pathologist Dr. Michael Stewart, accusing him of secretly taking tissue samples from hundreds of bodies at Los Alamos Medical Center in a Cold War-era study into radiation. Stewart was involved in a program in which pathologists at the hospital provided Los Alamos National Laboratory with tissue samples from hearts, livers, brains and other organs. Families who signed autopsy release forms were not told of the study nor were they told the tissue would end up in the hands of government scientists. In a settlement reached, Dr. Stewart agreed to pay $800,000, the medical center and the University of California, settled the rest of the $9.5 million settlement with more than 400 families. [LAS CRUCES SUN NEWS: TISSUE SAMPLES SETTLEMENT]