LONDON-British policies on transplantation are being overhauled following an incident in which the parents of an organ donor stipulated that their son's organs should be given only to a white person. It was revealed in July 1999 that, in July 1998, Northern General Hospital in Sheffield, England, had agreed to the family's stipulations, and the donor's kidneys and liver were transplanted into three white patients. Frank Dobson, then the Health Secretary, ordered an investigation of the case, and the findings were released in a report in late February.
"Racism of any kind is appalling. The government is totally against any kind of conditions being attached to organ donation….this was an isolated, dreadful case, but I am determined that nothing like this will ever happen again," said Health Minister Lord Philip Hunt in a statement posted by the Department of Health. In modernizing the transplant services, Lord Hunt said that the UK Transplant Support Services Authority would be revamped and renamed UK Transplant. The group's responsibilities will include a duty to set, deliver, and monitor transplant standards and play a more significant role in organ procurement. Hospitals are also being asked to ensure that their staff members "are aware of their obligations under the Race Relations Act, as well as wider issues of race equality," Lord Hunt said.
The report, by Chris Kelly, Permanent Secretary for the Department of Health, found that no other cases involving racism had come to light and that the patients who received the organs in the Sheffield case would have been the recipients regardless of the existence of the racist conditions.
For Your Information:
See www.doh.gov.uk/organdonation/report.htm for a summary of the report and a link to the full report.
For Lord Hunt's statement, go to http://pipe.ccta.gov.uk, and click on "Department of Health," and then click on the February 22 press release: "Lord Hunt Announces Modernisation of Transplant Services."
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