PARIS -After two decades of legal wrangling, a French appeals court aujourd 'hui threw excluding charges of manslaughter and other crimes against two scientists involved in a scandal of growth hormone, which led to the death of 125 children of the Creutzfeldt-Jakob (CJD) disease fatal brain. But lawyers for the victims' families say Science Insider who intend to take the case to the Court of Cassation, the highest court of appeal in France.
The verdict was a deep disappointment for the victims' families, as well as a surprise, because they felt they had an audience much fairer judges than they did at the first trial to lower court. "This time, the judges listen to us, and had a much better understanding of the case. It was a trial worthy of the name," said Jeanne Goerrian, a member of the Association for the Victims of growth hormone (AVHC ).
from 1959 to 1698 France treats children with growth disorders with hormone derived from pituitary glands taken from human corpses, a practice that has been linked to the transmission of CJD ., a prion disease prosecutors said the scientists involved should have done more to prevent infections; they also blamed the accused for the transition to the much safer hormone synthetic growth only in 1988, three years after the country as the US and the UK have done.
But the court of Appeals upheld the 09 decision of a lower court that "no fault" had been committed by biochemist Fernand Dray , who was in charge of purifying the material at the Pasteur Institute, and pediatrician Elisabeth Mugnier, in charge of collecting the pituitary glands and treatment monitoring. Dray "can not be blamed for not having the intuition of a risk of contamination no professional could have detected the moment," said the verdict. Mugnier "has no power to intervene in the management of the collection" Human glands, said the president of the court Didier Wacogne.
The case has been dragging on since the early 190s, French wheels of justice grind very slowly and two other scientists from the dock at the first trial died. Dray, 88, did not appear in court because he is weak and hospitalized.
On appeal, the prosecutor had asked for suspended sentences of 3 years and 1 year against Dray against Mugnier. It was less than four years required in the first trial for Dray, who was also accused of corruption on foreign purchases of human growth hormone. (These charges were dropped because the statute of limitations had expired.)
Today's verdict was "worse" than that of the lower court, said Toby Caroline, one of the lawyers AVHC because the court of appeal not only laid criminal charges, but said none of the defendants or their employers had any civil liability. Jean-Marc Viala, another lawyer for the victims' families, said he does not rule out continuing the French government to let the disaster happen. "This should have been done long ago," says Viala. The state has already paid € 36 million in compensation to the families of 125 CJD patients who died.
The Pasteur Institute contributed more than € 0,000 in civil damages to two families. But the institute should also have taken its scientific responsibility for young adults now living with the threat of CJD, French virologist and Nobel laureate Luc Montagnier . recently said Science Insider CJD may appear decades after infection, and more cases are expected to occur; Pasteur could fund research on the prevention, early diagnosis and treatment, Montagnier said rather. of that, "the only gesture was cash handouts from the government." During the trial, Montagnier, who could not be reached today, testified that Shepherd did not act on early indications that human growth hormone could be dangerous.
But Yves Agid, previously in charge of CJD surveillance in France and is director of the brain and spinal Institute here, welcomed the decision: "As I said in my testimony in two trials, it could not have known at the time that the material could be contaminated and transmit the disease. There were many unpredictable factors that led to this disaster. "
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