What is wrong with the removal of organs or glands from children and adults who die in hospitals? Apart from the religious objections which some people may hold, the answer must surely be that there is nothing wrong with it - so long as it is done with the permission of the next-of-kin. The practice aids medical research and saves or prolongs life in the future. But this in itself does not justify what is done in the name of medical research. The whole area is hedged about by ethical considerations.
The right of the next-of-kin to know what is being done with the body of a deceased child or adult does not appear, however, to have constituted an ethical consideration for earlier generations of doctors or patients' relatives. It may well be argued that parents and other relatives were kept in the dark out of consideration for their feelings.
What is more likely is that hospitals did not look for permission because they did not want to get "no" for an answer. Perhaps they are now discovering that this is not a sufficient reason for avoiding the question. A number of steps must be taken now, if matters are to be put right.
First, the hospitals must make available all the information at their disposal. They must co-operate fully with the inquiry being set up by the Minister for Health and Children. Second, the right of patients, their families and the public to information about what goes on in hospitals must be strengthened, and this must be done by legislation. There is little in the historical culture of hospitals to suggest that this will happen to the extent required in the absence of legislation. Third, the rights of families in relation to research, where this involves utilising the bodies of deceased family members, must be made explicit.
The right to information should not be solely in relation to the issues which have arisen recently. The right must be more general than that - institutions which can do their work without accounting for it are liable to do bad things as well as good things. We have seen this in other institutions. There is no reason why hospitals should be different.
Hospitals are not the most transparent of institutions. They can be hierarchical and sometimes authoritarian. This can mean that the views of staff working in such institutions are disregarded when they object to ethically dubious practices they come across. It can mean there is no one they can tell without fear of being discriminated against in future.
Thus the practice of removing organs without permission cannot be dealt with in isolation. There is something in the culture of hospitals which allowed this to happen. That will have to change if equally dubious things are not to happen again. Changing it is outside the capacity of a minister to accomplish.