Hospital sent children's organs to UK without parental consent

A top children’s hospital was sending organs to the UK without the permission of parents for several decades, it was revealed today.

Parents whose deceased children’s organs were retained by hospitals said documents received under the Freedom of Information Act would leave mothers’, fathers’ and the general public traumatised.

As well as uncovering the shipment of deceased children’s organs to the UK from Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Dublin’s Crumlin, the campaign group Parents for Justice said it was horrified to discover a letter confirming a pregnant uterus containing a normal foetus had been stored for around 14 years in a glass container at the hospital and the North Infirmary Hospital in Cork.

Charlotte Yeates, from the group, said the Crumlin hospital had always denied sending organs of Irish citizens to the UK without sanction or knowledge of the next of kin.

She said she believed the practice had taken place over four decades from the 1960s onwards.

“In addition, it is now clear that many of the families who suffered as a consequence of this policy of exporting organs to the UK are unaware to this date that same has occurred in respect of their loved one,” she said.