Organ Donation

Organs and tissue that cannot be used for transplant will only be used for medical or scientific research purposes if specific permission has been obtained from your family.

The problems of organ retention arose because proper consent was not obtained from parents or relatives for organs and tissue removed at post-mortem to be kept for research or other purposes. As a result of these problems the law was changed and the Human Tissue Act 2004 and the Human Tissue (Scotland) Act 2006 were introduced. Organs and tissue are only removed for transplantation if permission has been given.

No. Bodies are not accepted for teaching purposes if organs have been donated or if there has been a post-mortem examination. However, if only the corneas are to be donated, a body can be left for research.

To find out more information about whole body donation for research purposes or for anatomical examination you will need to contact the following organisations.

For England and Wales:

The Human Tissue Authority
Finlaison House
15-17 Furnival Street
London
EC4A 1AB
www.hta.gov.uk

For Scotland contact your nearest medical school:
Aberdeen
Department of Anatomy
Tel: 01224 274 320/01224 272 000

Dundee
College of Life Sciences, University of Dundee
Tel: 01382 388 825

Edinburgh
Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Edinburgh
Tel: 0131 650 2997/0131 650 8318

Glasgow
The Anatomy Department, University of Glasgow
Tel: 0141 330 4296/0141 339 8855

St Andrews
Department of Anatomy, University of St Andrews Tel: 01334 463 601

For Northern Ireland:
The Department of Anatomy Queen’s University Belfast Medical Biology Centre
97 Lisburn Road
Belfast BT9 7BL
Tel: 028 9097 2131