PORTLAND (AP) – The problems that plagued a Maine brain-harvesting operation will be addressed this week during a conference in Chicago for the national group that recommends uniform state laws.

A three-day meeting in Chicago will be used to begin the long process of revising the Uniform Anitomical Gift Act, a 1968 law meant to encourage donations of human body parts that was later adopted in every state.

The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws last recommended changes to the act in 1987. Since then, rapid growth in biotechnology has spurred a trade in body parts with positive and negative effects.

Carlyle Ring Jr., a Washington, D.C., lawyer and chairman of the committee, recently learned that Maine’s one-time funeral inspector was paid $1,000 to $2,000 for each brain he sent from the state Medical Examiner’s Office to a research lab.

The brain-collection operation was suspended last year following a Gorham family’s complaint that the brain of their recently deceased son was taken without permission. Ring said the incident is an example of what can go awry.

Ring’s committee is comprised of about 10 attorneys from around the country, but what changes they eventually suggest are not expected to become law soon.

The Maine Legislature can act independently of the national group.

Also, there is no guarantee that Maine will adopt any of the proposed revisions. For example, the ban on selling human body parts – adopted back in 1987 – is not in Maine’s version of the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act.

Following published accounts about the brain-collection operation, state Rep. Chris Barstow, D-Gorham, said he plans to propose legislation during the next session to tighten the process for obtaining consent to harvest body parts.