Legislation proposals in autumn

MINISTER FOR HEALTH:PROPOSALS FOR new legislation to regulate "the removal, retention, storage, use and disposal of human tissue from postmortems" will be put before the Government in the autumn, Minister for Health and Children Mary Harney said yesterday. A public consultation on the proposals "was recently completed", she said, adding that "officials have met with key stakeholder groups to discuss their suggestions".

Welcoming publication of the the report yesterday, she said she was “very conscious” that it identified “issues of serious concern that will cause upset to parents who have already suffered the bereavement of a child”.

Labour Party spokeswoman on health Jan O’Sullivan called for an early introduction of promised legislation to ensure that no postmortem could be carried out and no tissue retained without proper authorisation.

The National Maternity Hospital at Holles Street in Dublin said the report highlighted “the need for absolute transparency for bereaved families and the general public in the practices and procedures applied where organs are to be retained at postmortem”.