Alder Hey organ scandal children remembered

Thousands of body parts were held by the hospital without permission

About 200 people have attended a memorial service for children linked to the Liverpool Alder Hey organ scandal.

The hospital stripped hundreds of dead babies of their organs for medical research without permission.

Final unclaimed samples and foetuses held by the hospital were buried at All Souls Church, Allerton, last month.

Friday's church service was followed by the dedication of a memorial garden by the Bishop of Liverpool, the Right Reverend James Jones.

Ahead of the service it was announced that John O'Hare, one of the leading campaigners to change the law after the scandal emerged, had been taken to hospital with a serious illness.

Mr O'Hare's planned address to the congregation was read on his behalf by Canon Doctor Ian Lovett.

May this ground we have dedicated be a place of remembering The Bishop of Liverpool, the Right Reverend James Jones

He said: "We are to remember all the children and babies who have finally been laid to rest with the dignity and respect they so justly deserve."

Mr O'Hare said the practice of retaining the remains of children without the permission of relatives may date back as far as 1940.

The law has since been changed to require hospitals to obtain "informed consent" before organs and tissue samples are held.

He added that because of the scandal, people had worked together to bring legal changes which "hopefully mean that what happened in the past to our children will never happen again".

The memorial garden has been created at Allerton Cemetery as a place where people can reflect.

In his dedication, Bishop Jones said: "We are here to honour the short lives of the babies and children who now lie here and those who loved them and brought them into the world.

"May this ground we have dedicated be a place of remembering, a place of comfort and a place from where lives can move forward."

The organ scandal first emerged in 1999 after the hospital discovered that hundreds of childrens' organs had been taken without parental consent.