Posted on 05/12/2003 1:21:15 PM PDT by ZinGirl
British Doctors Remove 20,000 Brains Without Permission Practice Explicitly Outlawed In 1999
POSTED: 11:48 a.m. EDT May 12, 2003
LONDON -- British doctors and morticians removed at least 20,000 brains for research from 1970 to 1999 without obtaining families' consent, according a government report published Monday.
The figure includes only those brains still held by hospitals and universities in England, and many more could have been taken and destroyed, Dr. Jeremy Metters, Her Majesty's Inspector of Anatomy, said in the report.
Removing organs without families' permission was explicitly outlawed in 1999. A law passed in 1961 said organs should only be taken from corpses if relatives did not object, though permission was not required.
In one case, Metters said, a hospital mortician was paid $16 for each brain he provided for research. Metters said it was possible that a brain could have been removed in any post mortem carried out by a hospital or coroner between 1961 and 1999.
The government ordered an investigation after a woman learned her husband's brain had been removed without her permission when he committed suicide in 1987. The couple's Jewish faith decrees that a person must be buried intact.
Elaine Isaacs found out what happened to her husband, Cyril, by chance in 2000. She said the secrecy surrounding his case was "nothing short of collusion," and she expected authorities to take action against those responsible.
"Our rights were ignored in every sense," she said.
The government's chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, said the practice "is an affront to families who have lost a loved one.
"I can assure them and other families that, since the time of the activities described in this report, the practice of routine retention and use of organs and tissue without consent is no longer acceptable practice in the NHS," or National Health Service, he said.
The British Medical Association released a statement Monday agreeing that the report's findings should be made a criminal offense.
Dr. Vivienne Nathanson, the association's head of science and ethics, said the practice of taking organs without consent started when doctors thought it was better that bereaved families did not have to make difficult decisions about organ donation.
"Medicine has moved on and we are confident that practices have changed," Nathanson said in a statement. "Doctors recognize that individuals have the right to make decisions for themselves and that the role of the doctor is to provide information to help people make those choices and decisions."
Removing organs without consent was outlawed after it was revealed that the Royal Liverpool Children's Hospital in northwest England retained 3,500 organs from babies and children without their parents' knowledge.
Metters made 32 recommendations to prevent organs being retained without permission, including greater openness from all those involved in post mortems.
"There are a lot of people who would give their consent for research on the brains of their relatives," Metters said. "It would be a tragedy if my report was to undermine lawful post mortem research that has the full consent of relatives."
Shalom.
yuck, yuck, yuck....hey, for a second there I thought I was out of my mind....because I DID go to England back in 1990...and maybe those British doctors took it when I wasn't paying attention. (snort)
(but a good one!)
In one memorable scene, the aliens enter a beauty salon whose clientelle is the bubble-gum popping type. The owner says to the alien, "May I help you?"
"We need brains," he says.
"Well you've come to the wrong place," she responds.
Later, you see an alien with an air-powered saw approaching a customer: "A little off the top?"...
--Boris
Wait a second...Isn't DU's active membership around 20,000?
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