A British government inquiry will reveal on Monday that the brains of thousands of depressed people were illegally removed after their deaths and kept for medical research over a 30-year period, The Times newspaper said.
The brains of mentally ill or handicapped people were supplied to researchers by doctors without the families’ consent between 1970 and 1999, the newspaper said on Saturday.
It said some 24 000 brains are still stored in British hospitals and universities, half the total of all the organs retained for research.
As English law stands, the coroner is not permitted to allow a pathologist performing a post-mortem examination to keep organs other than to establish the cause of death — unless they have the consent of the relatives.
But the Human Tissue Act provides no sanction for doctors who disobey the legislation.
British Health Secretary Alan Milburn promised after the publication of a damning report on Alder Hey hospital in 2001 that the Human Tissue Act would be amended, but it remains unchanged.
Bosses at Alder Hey apologised in February for their role in a scandal that led to hundreds of organs being removed from dead children without their parents’ permission.
The report to be published on Monday by Jeremy Metters, the Inspector of Anatomy, was ordered by Milburn two years ago when it became clear that the practice of removing and retaining brains for research had become widespread, The Times said. – Sapa-AFP