The placentas - afterbirths - of babies born in two public maternity hospitals in Cork were shipped to companies in France, Belgium and the UK over a period of 18 years without consultation with the mothers or families of the babies, a meeting of the Southern Health Board was told this week.
The placentas were used for medical, not cosmetic purposes, members were assured.
The companies involved were a Belgian company, Promedy S.A., a French company, Merieux, and a UK company, Recolte.
The placentas were used for "the extraction of albumin, glucocerebrosidase and gamma globulin destined for human therapeutic use".
The placentas from St Finbarr's Hospital were sold at £2.50 per box of 24 when the arrangement started in 1974. By September 1992, when it stopped, they were being sold for £5.50 per box of 15.
In the case of the Erinville Hospital, Cork's biggest public maternity hospital where the arrangement started in 1978, the placentas were collected in the hospital on the basis of the company providing a deep-freeze and suitable cartons. A "small contribution" was made to the hospital in respect of costs incurred.
In 1992 the Southern Health Board sought assurances from Merieux, that the human placentas were being used only for scientific purposes. They received these assurances.
The Erinville's income from the arrangement amounted to only £150 in 1990, and the hospital ceased the practice in 1992, the year mothers' approval was sought. The practice stopped because of growing sensitivity on the issue, the programme manager, Mr Tony McNamara, said.
Mr Bernard Allen, Cork Fine Gael TD, who asked for information and reassurances on the export of placentas to French companies said he was shocked to find the sale of placentas was taking place in the Erinville until 1992, in a hospital used by his own family.
"I resent this happening without my permission. At no stage were we asked or consulted." Other families would feel the same, he said.
Cllr Kathleen Lynch said she had used the hospital in the period mentioned "on several occasions". She would never have given permission for the sale of the placentas.