Parents may quit dead children's organs inquiry

The promised inquiry into the retention of dead children's organs at a number of hospitals looks in danger of collapsing before it starts, with parents threatening to withdraw their co-operation.

The Parents for Justice group, which represents the families of almost 2,000 people who had organs removed following post-mortems, is to ballot its members next week on pulling out of the inquiry. The group's executive committee is recommending a withdrawal unless a number of difficulties are overcome.

The main problem is that the names of health professionals who ordered the retention of organs or authorised their transfer to pharmaceutical companies cannot be revealed in the report stage of the inquiry, according to Ms Fionnuala O'Reilly, a spokeswoman for the group. She said this was "totally unacceptable" to parents and she expressed disappointment that a planned meeting about the issue between the group and the Attorney General's office had been cancelled last week "with no explanation".

A further difficulty has arisen over parents' efforts to gain access to certificates of the cause of death of children who had organs removed. The Department of Health and Children refused an attempt to access these documents under the Freedom of Information Act. It stated the Vital Statistics and Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1952 prohibits such access.

Parents for Justice has appealed this decision but the Department says many of the original certificates may be "disposed of" or "archived for non-retrieval". Ms O'Reilly described this development as "extremely disturbing". The Minister, Mr Martin, when setting up the inquiry, said he would be "appalled if any public hospital refused to make documents available".

The inquiry, to be chaired by Ms Anne Dunne SC, is due to begin in the autumn.