Organ retention families to sue
The families of 2,000 dead children who had their body parts removed and held by NHS hospitals without permission are to take the government to court, according to the Daily Express.
The newspaper reports that the parents will be seeking millions of pounds of compensation in the High Court next week. The paper claims that the parents are unhappy with the £1,000 compensation they have been offered after the parents of children involved in the Alder Hey hospital scandal received £5,000 each last year.
Mervyn Fudge a solicitor for many of the affected families told GMTV this morning that the families had little choice but to seek compensation through the courts.
He argued: “Acceptable offers were made to the Alder Hey parents but not to the parents in this group and they are left with no alternative but to seek redress in the court.”
In the 1990’s it was revealed that Alder Hey hospital had been retaining the organs of children without consent. The news caused public outcry and the launch of a review to find out how extensive the problem was.
Hundreds more families found out that their children had been buried with missing organs and led to a number of distressing cases where children had to be reburied.
The government is introducing legislation to ensure that the practice of organ retention is made illegal. The Human Tissue Bill will make organ retention a criminal offence with a maximum sentence of three years imprisonment.
A Department of Health spokesman commented: “Following the Alder Hey cases, the chief medical officer carried out a census of the NHS to find out the extent of organ retention and those results were published in January 2001.
“This practice has now been stamped out across the NHS and the Human Tissue Bill which is currently going through parliament and responds to the Alder Hey, Isaacs and Bristol inquiries will ensure that legislation is in place to prevent any further organ retention.”
