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Guarding the Public Interest: England's Coroners and Organ Transplants, 1960–1975

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2015

Helen MacDonald
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Abstract

From the mid-twentieth century, England's coroners were crucial to the supply of organs to transplant, as much of this material was gleaned from the bodies of people who had been involved in accidents. In such situations the law required that a coroner's consent first be obtained lest removing the organs destroy evidence about the cause of the person's death. Surgeons challenged the legal requirement that they seek consent before taking organs, arguing that doing so hampered their quick access to bodies. Some coroners willingly cooperated with surgeons while others refused to do so, coming into conflict with particular transplanters whom they considered untrustworthy. This article examines how the phenomenon of “spare part” surgery challenged long-held conceptions of the coroner's role.

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Articles
Information
Journal of British Studies , Volume 54 , Issue 4 , October 2015 , pp. 926 - 946
Copyright
Copyright © The North American Conference on British Studies 2015 

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References

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59 Neither Patrick Ryan nor Derek Birbeck had donated their hearts; rather, relatives permitted this.

60 TNA, MH 150/400, Memorandum by J. A. W. McDonald, 12 August 1968.

61 At the inquest one doctor considered that Ryan had died at King's College Hospital, another that he had done so in the ambulance while in transit, and a third (the opinion Thurston selected) that the death had occurred at the moment it was “certified” in the operating theatre at the National Heart Hospital (Nathoo, Hearts Exposed, 119–20).

62 TNA, MH 150/400, newspaper clipping, “Coroners Give Heart ‘Rules,’” Daily Mail, 30 July 1968.

63 This was despite the fact that the DHSS itself was concerned about the practice of transporting donors, which they considered to be “highly undesirable.” TNA, MH 150/400, Dr. Dennis to Miss Hedley, 6 August 1968.

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65 TNA, MH 150/400, Catherine Dennis to Miss Hedley, 6 August 1968.

66 For an in-depth analysis of this transplant see MacDonald, “Considering Death.”

67 “Donor's Heart ‘Switched off’ by Doctors,” Times, 29 May 1969, 1.

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69 Ibid.

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76 Ibid., 1.

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87 TNA, MH 150/402, Note for Record, W. G. Robertson, 19 August 1970.

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91 Ibid.

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93 Ibid., 211.

94 Ibid., 213.

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