ArchiMed

By Dr. Nicolas Tschumy The establishment and use of a collection of human body parts, such as the Geneva Brain Bank, raise various legal questions. The main issues revolve around two questions: 1- What are the conditions to be met for collecting and preserving the brains of deceased individuals?2- What are the conditions for (re)using them in contemporary research projects? The Swiss legal system recognizes every person’s right to dispose of their body within the limits of the law, public…

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Established at the beginning of the 20th century, it is one of the largest of its kind in Europe, preserving over 10,000 brains exhibiting various pathologies. These brains originate from medical autopsies performed at the Geneva University Hospitals, for which consent was given to retain the tissues for research purposes. Over the decades, it has served as a valuable resource for studying brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, neurosyphilis, frontotemporal dementia, and Huntington’s disease. In addition to formalin-fixed…

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