Memorial Service For Organ Scandal Babies

8:38am UK, Friday February 26, 2010

Mike McCarthy, North of England correspondent

A memorial service is due to be held to mark the end of one of the most shameful episodes in British medical history.

The event follows the final burial of organs taken from dead babies at Alder Hey hospital in Liverpool.

Families and medical staff will join together for a service which will be followed by the dedication of a memorial garden at Liverpool's Allerton Cemetery.

John O'Hare's daughter, Kathryn, was one of the children whose organs were taken without family consent.

He said: "I am truly thankful that we have come to this day. All the children have now been laid to rest.

"I hope that families will be able to find closure from this, although some never will."

The event comes more than 10 years after it emerged Alder Hey had routinely stripped hundreds of organs without the permission of relatives.

Funeral for victims of baby organ scandal

Some were stored in buckets and kept in a dirty basement room.

An official report concluded Dutch pathologist Dick Van Velzen had ordered the "unethical and illegal stripping of every organ from every child who had a post-mortem" during his seven years at the hospital.

Since then, a new law has been introduced insisting on consent.

Alder Hey's acting chief executive, Dr Steve Ryan, said: "We know that families will always have the memory of this. We know that our hospital will as well.

"We have a plaque at the hospital which will go to the new one we are building. What we can't do is ever forget the lessons."