Organ removal doctors ruled negligent
Doctors who removed the organs of more than 2,000 children without the consent of their families were today found negligent in a landmark ruling.
A High Court judge agreed with the parents that the practice of taking their children's organs without consent was morally and ethically "objectionable".
Mr Justice Gage awarded £2,750 to Denise Shorter, 37, of Oxford, whose daughter Laura was stillborn in October
1992. His ruling means that claims of hundreds of other parents can now be dealt with.
But he dismissed claims from two other families.
Mervyn Fudge, solicitor for the claimants, said: "In the hospital postmortem cases the judge has found the claimant was owed a duty of care and that was breached.
"The doctors were guilty of negligence and provided that we can show psychiatric damage then they [the families] are entitled to damages.
"Those who are subject to coroner's courts postmortems will not be given compensation."
Two thirds of the claimants - a total of 1,350 - may now be entitled to compensation.
Counsel for the families Richard Lissack, QC, said the court had found clinicians negligent in not telling relatives their child's organs might be kept if they consented to a post-mortem.
The NHS Litigation Authority denied the medical profession had acted unlawfully. In a statement today, it called the judge's finding "important and complex".
Outside the High Court, NHS employee Mrs Shorter said: "For me, compensation is irrelevant. We came to court to get the law changed and we feel that we have done that."
