Laws to govern tissue removal

NEW legislation on post mortems and the removal, retention, storage, use and disposal of human tissue will be introduced next year.

The Madden Report on Post Mortem Practice and Procedure, published last year, recommended no post mortem be carried out and no tissue retained for any purpose whatsoever without the permission of the family.

At a forum on proposals for human tissue legislation in Dublin yesterday, the author of the report, Dr Deirdre Madden, said she favoured authorisation over consent because it allowed the family to control the information they wanted to receive.