The Paris-Descartes University Body Donation Center – HOUPLINE FOX / SIPA
The University of Paris was indicted on April 15 for “attacking the integrity of a corpse”. This indictment intervenes in the investigation into the indecent conditions of conservation of remains at the Center for the donation of bodies (CDC), we learned this Thursday from sources close to the case, confirmed by a judicial source.
“It is an indictment without direct link with the facts concerning the Center for the donation of bodies, at a time when the University of Paris did not exist”, reacted Me Patrick Maisonneuve, who defends the university establishment, new entity resulting from the merger in January 2020 of Paris-Descartes and Paris-Diderot. At the time, the CDC then depended on the University of Paris-Descartes, known for its faculty of medicine.
Dilapidated premises, rotten remains eaten away by mice
According to Me Patrick Maisonneuve, this aspect of the case dates back to the discovery of a dozen bones in 2020, during searches carried out in the investigation that followed the scandal, when the center was already closed and the premises were supposed to have been cleaned.
In this judicial information, a former anatomy preparer who would have worked at the CDC from 1975 to 2011 has already been indicted in December. During a search of his home, human bones and jewelry recovered from the remains were found, according to the weekly Marianne.
Dilapidated premises, rotten remains eaten by mice, suspicion of the commodification of bodies … In an article published at the end of November 2019, The Express denounced the “indecent conditions” of conservation of the remains of “thousands of people who have donated their bodies to science”. These revelations, which had caused a scandal, had led the Minister of Higher Education, Frédérique Vidal, to order the closure of the “temple of French anatomy”, founded in 1953 and which hosted several hundred bodies each year.
A “desire to harm or harm corpses”
A preliminary investigation had been opened, then the investigations were entrusted to investigating judges in July 2020. The previous month, the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (Igas) and the General Inspectorate of Sports Education and research (Igésr) had estimated in an administrative investigation that the University of Paris-Descartes was responsible for “serious ethical breaches” in the management of the CDC.
The report mentioned in particular a “loss of reference points (…) both among the preparers and among the interveners” on the bodies and questioned a “desire to harm or harm the corpses” of “certain preparers”. The former president of Paris-Descartes University, Frédéric Dardel, was heard on November 12 in police custody by investigators. He emerged without prosecution at this point.