The Government has agreed terms of reference for the UCC law lecturer Dr Deirdre Madden to complete an inquiry it established five years ago into the organ retention controversy.
Dr Madden, who is also an expert in medical ethics, was commissioned in May to finish the inquiry and produce a report.
The first four years of the organs inquiry were chaired by Anne Dunne SC, but after it failed to meet several deadlines or to produce a substantive report it was shut down. It had cost taxpayers some €20 million.
Dr Madden will now draw on nearly 3,500 pages of documentation secured by the Dunne inquiry during its investigations. She has been asked to complete her report by December 21st.
She will have five terms of reference: to inquire into policies and practices relating to the removal, retention and disposal of organs from children who have undergone postmortem examination in the State since 1970; to inquire into allegations that pituitary glands were removed from children undergoing post mortem examination for sale to pharmaceutical companies within and outside the State; to examine professional practice in relation to the information 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; to review the manner in which hospitals responded to concerns raised by bereaved families relating to post mortem practices carried out on children; and to make recommendations for any legislative and/or policy change as deemed appropriate.
Dr Madden has already met Parents for Justice, the group representing families affected by the controversy.
She has also spoken to key figures in Northern Ireland and the UK who were involved in similar inquiries.
Announcing Dr Madden's terms of reference, Minister for Health Mary Harney said yesterday she hoped she would produce a comprehensive report that would help "put closure on the matter for many families and next of kin".