Sisters St. Julian Flaherty (from left), Carolyn Weibler and Ruth Schiffler are among about 86 Catholic nuns in Dubuque, Iowa, and Chicago who have agreed to donate their brains to researchers trying to find a cure for Alzheimer's disease. ASSOCIATED PRESS

Nuns to donate their brains to science

Organs to go to Alzheimer researchers

Web posted March 13, 1999

By Greg Smith
Associated Press

DUBUQUE, Iowa -- Sister Ruth Schiffler has given most of her 83 years to God, children and the sick, and when she dies the former educator's devotion to others will continue. She is donating her brain to researchers trying to find a cure for Alzheimer's disease.

Sister Schiffler is one of about 86 nuns in the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary order in Dubuque and Chicago who have agreed to leave their brains to science.

They are participants in the nationwide Religious Orders Study, a $13 million federally funded research project in its sixth year.

``It's nice to know we're giving a lift to humanity. We're contributing to society and mankind in a way that we couldn't otherwise,'' Sister Schiffler says.

The Religious Orders Study, funded by the National Institute on Aging, is studying older Catholic nuns, priests and brothers who have agreed to undergo annual detailed clinical evaluations and leave their brains to research when they die.

The nuns in Sister Schiffler's order, about a dozen Dubuque-area priests and the same number of Trappist monks at New Melleray Abbey in nearby Peosta are among the members of 25 religious communities in nine states taking part in the project. Besides Iowa, participants live in California, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Minnesota, New York, Tennessee and Wisconsin.

Dr. David Bennett, who heads the study by the Alzheimer's Disease Center at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago, says the participants start without the disease and make excellent subjects.

``This is about as close as you can get to a controlled experiment because their lifestyles are fairly similar,'' he said. ``Getting brains from healthy, older people in general is pretty difficult because they don't want to do it.''

Not so among the nuns at Mount Carmel, a retirement home for Sister Schiffler's order that sits on 110 acres overlooking the Mississippi River.

``Everyone has a sense that at the time of death, they're moving into eternal life,'' said Sister Mira Mosle, director of public relations for the order. ``Our people are very comfortable with it. I think there is a general sense that it's one way that people can continue to serve others.''

Besides, says 85-year-old Sister Mary Eaton, ``After I'm dead, the brain isn't going to do me a bit of good.''

According to Dr. Bennett, one in 10 people older than 65 have Alzheimer's disease. An estimated 5 million Americans have the disease, with illness rates rising with age: 15 percent of people between the ages of 75 and 84, about half of those over 85.

``People over the age of 65 are the most rapidly growing segment of the population of the United States and other industrialized nations,'' Dr. Bennett said. ``So the number of people with Alzheimer's could, in fact, triple by the middle of the next century.''

Researchers have already received 83 brains. Donating brains is only part of the project, however.

Participants begin with an evaluation that includes their medical history, work experiences, lifestyle, family history, neurological and physical performance tests and blood samples.

Cognitive performance tests are conducted to assess short- and long-term memory, language patterns, attention and perception.

The half-day of tests is repeated each year. Researchers are able to detect any signs of Alzheimer's and can bookmark, by year, the progress of the disease.

``Why am I participating? I went into it because of the many people I knew who have had spouses with the disease,'' said Sister Carolyn Weibler, a retired high school teacher.

``I have seen what happens, how it is a 24-hour job to take care of these people,'' says Sister Weibler, 83.

Dr. Bennett is being helped by scientists from the Mayo Clinic and the following universities: Case Western Reserve, Emory, Illinois, Kentucky, Northwestern, Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh.

``But the heroes of this story,'' he said, ``are the participants -- the nuns, the priests, the brothers -- that are agreeing to do this. We researchers and scientists can have great ideas all day, but this is a partnership with a remarkably dedicated group of people.''

Sister St. Julian Flaherty, 91, says she and her colleagues have developed a sense of humor about it all.

``It's not like we need our brains after we're gone,'' she says. ``When I started, I asked if I would be able to have an open coffin at my funeral. They said, `Oh yeah. We take the brains out of the back of the head.'''