Cabinet to get organ inquiry report

The Government last night received the report of the inquiry into the retention of children's organs by hospitals. The report was carried out by medical ethics expert Dr Deirdre Madden.

A spokesman for Minister for Health Mary Harney said that the report would be sent to the Attorney General in the coming days.

It is expected she will bring it to the Cabinet in January.

However, last night the group representing families affected by the organ retention controversy, Parents for Justice, criticised the report and said it would not provide a comprehensive account of the issue given its restrictive terms of reference.

A spokeswoman for the group said that 41 per cent of its membership would receive no answers from the Madden report as it would not cover the cases involving the retention of adult organs or those of children over 12.

The spokeswoman said the organisation believed that it had been let down by both Ms Harney and by her predecessor as minister for health, Micheál Martin.

The Madden report will effectively represent the second inquiry into the organ retention controversy.

Last March the Government closed down an inquiry chaired by senior counsel Anne Dunne because it had missed successive deadlines and the Cabinet believed that further public expenditure could not be justified.

The Dunne inquiry, which handed over more than 50 boxes of material to the Department of Health last March, had cost around €20 million.

Dr Madden was asked by the Government to draw on the material secured by the Dunne inquiry and to produce a report by Christmas.

She was given five terms of reference: to inquire into policies and practices relating to the removal, retention and disposal of organs from children who had undergone postmortem examination in the State since 1970;

Second, to inquire into allegations that pituitary glands were removed from children who were undergoing postmortem examination for sale to pharmaceutical companies within and outside the State;

Third, to examine professional practice in relation to the information that was given to children's parents in respect of the removal, retention and disposal of tissue and organs and the appropriateness of practices of obtaining consent;

Fourth, to review the manner in which hospitals responded to concerns raised by bereaved families relating to postmortem practices carried out on children;

Finally, to make recommendations for any legislative and/or policy change as deemed appropriate

Parents for Justice has initiated High Court proceedings against the Government over its handling of the inquiry into the organ retention controversy which, it maintains, was promised by Mr Martin when he was minister for health.

The group is seeking a declaration that the Government is in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights in that there have been excessive delays in relation to the investigation of the organ retention issue in contravention of Article 6 of the convention.

The organisation is also seeking a declaration that Dr Madden's inquiry breached the rights of parents under the convention in that it was held in private.