More hospitals have admitted they supplied pituitary glands retained from deceased children following the admission last week by Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children and the Coombe maternity hospital that they passed on the organs to pharmaceutical firms.
The Southern Health Board has confirmed that Tralee General Hospital and Cork University Hospital supplied pituitary glands from dead children to a company in the 1980s.
Mullingar Regional Hospital also admitted it had provided pituitary glands to the company Kabi Vitrum, which is now Pharmacia Ireland Ltd.
University College Hospital Galway has also admitted it collected pituitary glands for Kabi Vitrum in the 1980s.
The glands were used to extract human growth hormone administered to children with growth problems, at a time when the hormone could not be made synthetically.
The Parents for Justice group claimed today it has come across "reliable information" that "many more" pharmaceutical companies and hospitals were involved in the retention, sale and export of organs for making medicinal products.
The group, which says it represents over 900 families whose children or adult relatives had their organs retained without their knowledge or consent, today called on the hospitals and companies to admit their involvement, warning that otherwise it would name them.
It said it had also been "reliably informed" there was "wholesale export" of body parts [glands] for profit. The group said it did not believe it needed to question the information that has come into its possession. There was a "paper trail" in existence to confirm the information, it claimed.
Ms Fionnuala O'Reilly of Parents for Justice
At a press conference this afternoon, Ms Fionnuala O'Reilly of Parents for Justice said the organisation had received "reliable information" in recent days. The information indicated that "many more" pharmaceutical companies, in addition to Pharmacia Ireland, were involved in the procurement of children's glands without the consent or knowledge of their parents.
As well as pituitary glands, these included adrenal, thyroid and pancreatic glands, which were harvested by hospitals and supplied to pharmaceutical companies to make various medicinal products, she said.
The practices extended "far beyond" the hospitals and health professionals involved and that there had to be some State responsibility for the issuing of licences for the export of human material, she maintained.
"Payment was widespread and payment was made."
She claimed to be know the names of the companies but did not propose to reveal them today.
Ms O'Reilly said Parents for Justice would prefer that the companies disclose the information voluntarily and "do the decent thing" by families whose children's organs were retained.
"If pressed, we are prepared to identify the companies involved," Ms O'Reilly said.
She said Parents for Justice had seen some documentation in recent days confirming that the practice went on.
Asked whether she believed this may have indicated a "multi-million" pound industry in the sale of children's organs, Ms O'Reilly said it "looks likely" that this was the case.
"This finally explains to families why so many organs, which were unrelated to the cause of death of their children, were removed," Ms O'Reilly said.
This included cases where children who died from cardiac problems had "every organ removed".
Ms O'Reilly said she also believed that if consent to organ retention had been sought from families in a sympathetic, truthful and honest manner, the families affected would have consented if they have believed it would contribute to a better quality of life for other children.
She said the organisation had not informed the Department of Health or the Dunne inquiry into organ retention that it was in possession of the information and that it was going to make a statement on the issue.
Ms O'Reilly called on the pharmaceutical companies and the hospitals to come forward in the interests of sparing the parents distress from "this constant drip-feed of information" about organ retention.
She also called on the chairperson of the Dunne inquiry, Ms Anne Dunne SC, to make a statement. Parents for Justice withdrew from the Dunne inquiry last October in what it said was frustration at the failure of the inquiry to issue a report.