Whether the practice of retaining organs from deceased children without the permission of their next of kin has ceased.

There is general awareness across NHSScotland that past practice, under which organs were retained at post-mortem examinations without the knowledge or consent of the family, was unacceptable. Since early 2000, all trusts in Scotland have adapted their procedures to ensure that the form they use is explicit about the permissions being given, and that information about the implications of a hospital post-mortem examination is available to parents who wish it.MEL(2001)21 of April 2000 instructed trusts to ensure that relatives were fully and sensitively informed of the organisation's policy on post-mortem examinations, including why the examination was thought necessary, how it would be carried out, whether organs would be retained and the options for their subsequent disposal.The interim report by the review group on retention of organs at post-mortem, published in February 2001, contained a clear recommendation that no hospital post-mortem examination should be undertaken without the agreement of relatives, and no organs should be retained without their specific consent. It also set out a code of practice designed to ensure that the lessons of the past were implemented. The Scottish Executive endorsed these recommendations.This approach is enshrined in the standards on the management of hospital post-mortem examinations, published in March 2003 by NHS Quality Improvement Scotland. These standards are mandatory across NHSScotland.The agreement of the relatives is not required where the Procurator Fiscal has instructed a post-mortem examination, but organs will only be retained in such cases where this is necessary to determine the cause of death and generally only until diagnosis is complete. The Procurator Fiscal will ensure that families are fully informed and disposal of the organ is effected in accordance with families' wishes.