The BBC reported last week on an independent review board set up in Scotland to look at a bizarre issue — who should get the organs of children after they die in Scottish hospitals?
The only thing more bizarre than a commission to look into that question is the practice that led to it — several Scottish hospitals were caught storing the organs — including brains — of children whose deaths had been ruled the result of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (referred to as “cot death” in Scotland). Many of the hospitals never bothered to notify the parents, much less obtain their consent, or used consent forms that were apparently designed to hide the fact that the parents were consenting to have their children’s organs removed and stored.
Frankly, I think doctors on both sides of the Atlantic tend to underestimate the willingness of families to voluntarily participate in practices such as this. If properly framed as being part of research efforts to better understand — and hopefully prevent — such deaths, I suspect many families would consent. Doing this sort of thing on the sly, however, just reinforces patient suspicions when the practice is inevitably publicized (and in today’s world, such a practice will become public knowledge eventually — it’s impossible to keep something like this secret today).
Source:
New rights over organ retention. The BBC, July 19, 2002.
Organ retention policy review. The BBC, Sept. 22, 2000.