Madam, - We read with interest the letter from Prof Donald Weir (January 30th) on the organ retention controversy. The tone of this letter is a prime example of the paternalistic attitude referred to and highly criticised by Dr Deirdre Madden in her recently published report. What Prof Weir appears to have overlooked is that the lack of consent is the main issue in this controversy.
He then goes onto say: "In my view it should be possible to interview relatives and, as in the past, simply ask their permission to carry out an examination on the deceased, without having necessarily to go into the finer details except when specifically requested to do so".
The members of this organisation fully agree with this statement with the exception of replacing the word "examination" with "post-mortem." And we welcome the fact that in some hospitals and coroners offices there is at present information leaflets available regarding post mortems.
It would appear that Prof Weir has not read the Madden Report. If he had done so he would be aware that there is no legislation in place at present governing the issue of consent and the detailed information referred to by him on what a post-mortem entails is never likely to be included in any future legislation.
We in this organisation have always recognised and fully accepted the necessity and value of post-mortems for all the reasons referred to by Prof Weir. We are also aware that in recent years the general public have lost a certain amount of trust in hospitals and doctors.
It is now up to the medical profession, the HSE and the Department of Health to reclaim that trust in order to increase the number of post-mortems to a required level. This can only be done with complete openness and transparency on their part. - Yours, etc,
CHARLOTTE YEATES,
Parents for Justice Limited,
Ushers Quay,
Dublin 8.