Research using dead babies queried as early as 2002

The Royal College of Surgeons (RCSI) and Department of Health were questioned on the use of dead children for research in Irish universities years before the scandal became public.

It emerged last October that more than 450 dead babies, the majority from St Patrick’s mother-and-baby home and its sister hospital St Kevin’s in Dublin, were dissected in the medical departments of Irish universities without the knowledge or permission of their mothers. Many of the children were buried years later in the Angels’ Plot in Glasnevin, registered as “anatomical subjects.”

The universities involved were the Royal College of Surgeons, Trinity College Dublin, UCD, UCC and then UCG.

Documentation seen by the Irish Examiner shows that a letter from the Irish Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Society (ISANDS) was sent to the chief executive and council members of RCSI as far back as Mar 2000 questioning if such practices had occurred in Irish universities. The letter received no response.

Some of the questions posed in the letter were:

* Can babies be lawfully used in experimental procedures in this country?

* Have babies’ bodies been retained for teaching purposes for years?

* Where did anatomical babies buried in Glasnevin come from?

* Were these babies used in universities for studies or research trials?

Similar questions were posed by ISANDS in its submission to the Dunne Inquiry into the organ retention scandal in 2000 and again at the working group headed by Dr Deirdre Madden in 2005, which ISANDS claim was attended by Department of Health officials. The issue was again raised following the publication of the Carter and Willis reports into organ retention practices in 2009.

However, the RCSI denied having ever received such a letter from ISANDS and reissued the response it sent to Prime Time in October.

This stated that, up to the mid-1960s, all bodies unclaimed after 48 hours could also legally be sent to the anatomy departments of the Medical Schools and that prior to the 1960s many of these bodies were those of infants. It acknowledged, that by today’s standards, these practices were unacceptable.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, national chairperson of ISANDS Ron Smith-Murphy said if the RCSI did not receive the letter, why did it not admit to holding and using the bodies of infants for research at the time of the Organ Retention Scandal rather than waiting until last October.

“While I am very mindful that these issues are of a very sensitive nature and painful reminders for parents of a time in Ireland when their children seemed not to matter when it came to acknowledgment or recognition yet it seems these children mattered a great deal to those who wanted to use them for medical research.”