Clause 2 - ''Appropriate consent'': children
Human Tissue Bill
9:45 am
Ms Rosie Winterton (Minister of State, Department of Health; Doncaster Central, Labour)
That certainly can be the case. We have to be clear that there are clear guidelines and good practice already. We know that that is not impossible.
Of course I understand the natural need for reassurance that is felt by some in the scientific and medical research community. I hope that the message that we send out from this Committee is that we want to clarify the situation. What holds people back at the moment is a lack of clarity about the law.
Amendment Nos. 3 and 4 seek to ensure that relatives are sure about what they are agreeing to when
they are asked to consent to removal and use of tissue and organs. As I have said, the hon. Member for South Cambridgeshire is right to say that there have been misunderstandings about the meaning of ''tissue''. However, distinguishing between tissue and organs in the way that he suggests does not necessarily provide the information that relatives need. Some organs are very small, whereas tissue can mean large amounts of body material, such as part of a limb. The definition proposed by the hon. Gentleman in amendment No. 4 derives from the 1989 Act and has been found to be confusing.
The problem is that defining an organ is difficult. That is one reason why organs are not mentioned in the Bill. We agree that people should have the right type and amount of information before giving consent. Indeed, if they give consent in relation to one piece of material only, it will be an offence to take, store and use any other material.
The appropriate information will be provided in guidance and in consent forms. The current Department of Health code of practice on families and post mortems states:
''The discussion must make clear to the family:
The meaning of the term human tissue; that it includes organs, parts of organs and tissue in various forms, such as frozen sections and samples fixed in paraffin wax.''
The HTA's code of practice guidance on consent can equally be expected to make it clear that families should be fully informed of the nature and size of the specimens that it is proposed to remove or keep. The model consent forms currently provided by the Department for use in obtaining consent to post mortems also differentiate between organs and tissue, and the HTA could provide models on similar lines.
The difficulty again is to define in legislation something that it is more appropriate to define in codes of practice. As I understand it, a cornea is tissue, but to obtain it, the whole eye, which is an organ, must be taken. We want relatives to have the maximum information about the procedure. If a relative said, ''I want to give permission for the corneas to be taken'', we would want somebody to explain what that involved. I understand that the same is true for heart valves. The codes of practice must make it clear that relatives must be informed about everything that is taking place and not simply be given minimum information.