Doctors must respect the wishes of bereaved parents and be more open about the removal of organs and tissue from dead children for use in research, a leading medical expert told a summit on organ retention in Britain today.
The one-day meeting is delving into scandals at two British hospitals where doctors stripped organs from hundreds of dead children without their parents' consent. An investigation into similar practices in Ireland is due to begin next month.
The unauthorised removal of organs and tissue is a growing world problem. Some authorities say the shortage of organs for research and transplants has fuelled an illegal trade in body parts in Turkey, India, Russia and former Soviet states.
"I have spoken to parents whose children's organs were kept without their knowledge and, despite their anger and distress, they all support the continuation of research which could help future patients," said Dr Michael Wilks, the chairman of the British Medical Association's Ethics Committee.
News that children's hearts, lungs and other organs had been removed without their parents' knowledge emerged during an inquiry into the high death rate during infant heart operations at the Bristol Royal Infirmary. It was revealed that the hearts of hundreds of children who had died of cardiac arrest had been stored at hospitals around Britain.
Officials at Alder Hey children's hospital in Liverpool, northern England, later said that a total of 850 organs had been stored at that hospital between 1988-1995 by one of its doctors.
British media reports said as many as 50,000 organs may have been stored around the country.
"The desire to protect relatives from distress is an understandable motive but, nowadays that must be achieved by talking to people with sensitivity, not by avoiding the issue and certainly not by acting without consent," Dr Wilks added.
Reuters