The Alder Hey Organs Scandal

 by Saanvi Ganesh

In October 1999, an inquiry into organ harvesting was launched at Alder Hey children's hospital. The inquiry led to the publication of a report by Alder Hey children's hospital, the Redfern report, which outlined that over 104,000 organs had been harvested including whole stillborn foetuses, without parental knowledge and consent.

 

The scandal first broke when Helen Rickard, mother of Samantha who died during surgery at Alder Hey, demanded a copy of her daughter's medical records. She found that her daughter's heart had been retained without her knowledge or consent. A similar scandal had broken out in Bristol earlier, where a Bristol Heart Children Action Group was set up, embarking on discussions and in February 1999, a press conference so that the public could learn about the retained hearts.

 

As the details came to light, it became apparent that the practice of organ retention had been around for decades and that one pathologist held considerable responsibility, Professor Dick van Velzen. Velzen was appointed chair of foetal and infant pathology in 1988, around the time that organ retention at Alder Hey picked up. It was revealed that Velzen had ordered the "unethical and illegal stripping of every organ from every child who had had a post-mortem". This was even for the children whose parents stated they did not want a post-mortem.

 

On the 5th August 2004, the bodies of 50 nameless foetuses stored for medical research purposes were buried, 7 came from Alder Hey. More funerals followed on the several months that followed, resulting in around 1,000 bodies buried.

 

By December of the same year, the CPS dropped the prosecution of Dick van Velzen for criminal offences, because of the lack of evidence that the organs retained were those originally taken at the post-mortems of children. The police were unable to find a solution to this problem. This brought significant criticism from the parents and public to the CPS.

 

The GMC ruled that Velzen would be permanently banned from medical practice in the UK, in June 2005. this was after he admitted to using some of the organs obtained for research purposes without permission from the coroner or consent from parents.

 

The Alder Hey scandal brought led to amendments to the Human Tissue Act. It consolidates previous legislation and created the Human Tissue Authority in order "to regulate the removal, storage, use and disposal of human bodies, organs and tissue". The act allows for anonymous organ donation, where previously people could only donate to people who they had a genetic or emotional connection to. The act also requires a licence for organisations intending to publicly display human remains like 'Body Worlds' and prohibits selling organs. The Human Tissue Act 2004 also established DNA ‘theft’, the unlawful act of having human tissue with the intention to analyse its DNA, medical treatment, medical investigations and criminal investigations excluded, without consent.