Government to receive organ retention report

THE Government will receive the long-awaited report of the inquiry into organ retention by Irish hospitals on Wednesday.

Last May, Tánaiste Mary Harney appointed Dr Deirdre Madden, an expert in medical ethics, to examine the incomplete findings of the Dunne enquiry, which was wound up by the Government.

The five-year inquiry, chaired by senior counsel Anne Dunne, was wound up by the Government earlier this year, having cost some €13 million.

Ms Harney, the Minister for Health, said that Ms Dunne’s report, delivered to her office last March, consisted of almost 3,500 pages. She said that she had obtained legal advice that it was not possible to publish it in the form in which it had been received.

Dr Madden, a law lecturer in University College Cork, was asked by the minister to analyse the Dunne findings and complete a “thorough examination” of the relevant issues. They relate to the practice of certain hospitals to retain and use the organs of dead children and infants and other post-mortem practices dating back to 1970.

Later this summer, Parents for Justice also urged its members to boycott the new inquiry. The group contended it was not properly consulted about the terms of reference of Dr Madden’s inquiry. In particular, it said, the terms were too restrictive in confining the examination to just three hospitals and to deceased children under 12 years who were born alive.

The group said that this narrowing of terms would affect about half of its members. In October, the group was given leave by the High Court to make a judicial review application seeking a declaration that the Government is in breach of the European Convention of Human Rights.

The spokesperson for the Department of Health told the Irish Examiner yesterday that the report, once received, would be sent to the Attorney General. The report is due to be published at the end of January.