Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 123: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the initiatives she plans to respond to the issues raised by parents whose children had organs retained by hospitals without obtaining permission; and the outcome of her investigations to date into this matter. [37180/06]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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Dr. Deirdre Madden, a distinguished expert on medical law, was appointed by Government in May 2005 to provide a report on key issues relating to post-mortem practice and procedures and her report on Post-Mortem Practice and Procedures was published on 18 January this year. Considerable progress has already been made by the HSE in implementing the recommendations of the Madden Report in hospitals across the country and my officials will continue to liaise with the Executive to monitor progress in this regard.

A key recommendation of the report was that a Working Group be established to examine issues not included in the original terms of reference, that is post-mortem issues relating to babies who died before or during birth, minors and adults. This Group, chaired by Dr Madden, was set up in March, 2006 and its membership included representatives of Parents For Justice, Irish Stillbirth and Neo-natal Death Society, together with healthcare professionals from a range of disciplines across the Health Service Executive (HSE). I received the Report from the Working Group this week (6 November) and it is available for download from the Department of Health and Children website: www.dohc.ie.

Dr Madden's first report on paediatric post-mortem issues was a comprehensive and robust one and the Working Group Report dealing with post-mortem practice and procedures in other areas is equally so. The Working Group endorsed the recommendations made in the Madden Report, in particular the need for legislation to be introduced as soon as possible to ensure that no post-mortem examination will be carried out and no tissue or organ retained from a post-mortem examination for any purpose without appropriate authorisation.

Now that the recommendations are complete in respect of all age cohorts, I intend to prepare proposals for consideration by Government in relation to the legislation required to give legal effect to these recommendations.