London - A public inquiry investigating the way organs were taken from dead children at an English hospital called yesterday for a new code of practice for the medical profession.
The inquiry said the new system, backed if possible by a change in the law, should be centred on the guiding principle of "respect for parents and their dead children".
The inquiry into paediatric cardiac surgery at the Bristol Royal Infirmary found that hearts and other organs and tissues were routinely removed for post-mortem examinations and then kept by pathologists for teaching and for research.
It said parents were "almost entirely unaware of this practice".