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Updated at 4.40pm
THE DEPARTMENT OF Health says there are no plans to hold an inquiry into allegations that the bodies of hundreds of babies born to unmarried women in Ireland’s mother and baby homes were used in medical experiments after they died.
Last night, RTÉ’s Prime Time ran a special programme uncovering how hundreds of children at Irish institutions were used for medical research and dissected by medical students without their mothers’ consent right up until the 1960s.
The research also allegedly included vaccine trials in contravention of medical guidelines on captive populations. According to the programme, children’s residential institutions and mother and baby homes provided infants who could be monitored closely.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health told TheJournal.ie today that Reilly and Fitzgerald “deeply regret any distress caused as a result of any out-dated practices which are no longer in place or acceptable”.
The department is currently working on proposals for new legislation, the Human Tissue Bill, which will “provide for a strong consent framework for the donation of bodies to anatomy schools and will reflect current practices” in relation to the donation of bodies to anatomy schools.
Utter contempt
The Adoption Rights Alliance says that questions must be asked over the failure of previous inquiries and audits to reveal the extent to which the bodies of children intended for adoption were used in medical research.
It has called on the Minister for Health James Reilly and the Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald to set up an inquiry into the claims.
The medical practices shown in the programme demonstrate an utter contempt for children born outside of marriage and for their mothers, it says. The organisation also urged Fitzgerald to introduce legislation which will provide adopted people with access to their medical records.
The Adoption Rights Alliance helpline can be reached on 086 2359127
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Appalling.
Another wonderful thing that we can thank the overarching power of the Catholic Church for. Thanks Dev. You left a wonderful legacy.
Good oul religion eh? The good ol’ days when the local priest could call round to the home, with his ‘air of superiority’ and command the father of the house to evict his daughter to was pregnant out of wedlock. Off to the Magdalene Laundries with you. It’s what God would want. Certainly a forgiving God.
As my father says (who still goes to mass), “The nuns are worse than the Nazis. They’e STILL going!”
For the record, Kevin, it didn’t always happen like that. In my area, one priest did as you wrote, but the unmarried mother burshed him off with “Aaaaragh, sure it could happen to a bishop.” True story!
My heart sang when I read that headline. I’ve a brother, who I’ve yet to meet given up for adoption in the early 80′s. Relieved it’s pre 60′s. What a cruel country we once were.
Once were? Still are.
Oh what a legacy the church and fianna fail have left behind,
just because these little ones were born outside of married it was deemed ok to chop them up and to hell with the mother !
What a sad story and yet another embarrassment for Ireland .
And on Mary Davis poster " pride at home, respect abroad " !
Definitely a fianna failer with that deluded attitude..
No rest in peace for these babies…….
we csnt really blame fianna fail and tge church for everything. the irish people need to be accountable.
Graham has a point, pony. All this went on with the approval of the Irish people. We can go on and on about new republics and better political parties but if we the people refuse to change then just prepare yourself for more of the same, unto the nth generation.
The church and state have no power without the people. Pointless and facile blaming institutions that couldnt have survived and thrived for so long without the willful ignorance and blithe complicity of so many. I was given up in 1969. Its a fine line.
The RTE News division are often accused of being ‘Pravda-like’ in their coverage. However every now and then the Prime Time team produce well-researched compelling stories that need to be told. This sure is one of them. Well done to all involved in the research, reporting and production of this revealing programme.
Another day another horror story from Irelands tarnished past, the revelations of what went on in Ireland are just sickening. The abuse of children, the humiliation of unmarried mothers, the internment of thousands in what can only be described as Irish gulags or concentration camps, women made to work as slaves by nuns, women routinely raped and young adults and children buggered by clerics and lay workers, disabled and mentally ill patients treated like animals and abused and violently beaten by people who were supposed to be taking care of them. Now we have this, babies of unmarried mothers used for medical experiments, their bodies then dissected like frogs in a science lesson, who allowed this? Who are the people who done the experiments, who signed off on the policy? who was responsible for saying which children were to be used and who supplied the bodies of dead babies to the medical ‘profession’. Did the government of the collude in this macabre practice? Who ran the institutions that were used, where they paid to supply bodies and provide lab rats or in this case live children? This is like something the Nazis would have done, it has echoes of Dr. Mengele and Birkenau all over it and this is Ireland we are talking about! What a sick country, but as people pointed out this could not have happened without the people of Ireland at that time turning a blind eye! This is what happens when a country becomes a theocracy or dictatorship and Ireland under the influence of FF and the catholic church up to the 80′s seems to have been close to if not a very nasty little country if you fell foul of the priests or their political lackeys in FF/FG. It just gets worse and worse, another nail in the coffin for Irelands sullied reputation and this the day after the UN reviewed our human rights record, were they aware of this horror? It never cease to amaze me how the same religious zealots who treated babies and children like this are the first to bang on about abortion and the rights of the unborn child when this is the way they are treated by them when they are born and put in their care.
All your questions were answered in the show
The best thing about this is no one will go to prison and accountability will be a word used on paper.
People will blame the church and state institutions for this, and they do deserve their share of the blame. But …
What is WRONG with us as a nation? WE did this. We looked the other way at child abuse, state and church corruption, and still endorse a national ideology that idolises blood sacrifice and murder as a political tool.
Is there something utterly vile at the heart of this nation, or is there something wrong with human nature?
@ ed appebly, Ed what a response, but what I find most profound is your last fact about abortion the rights of the child. Maybe the church’s views on abortion were based on the fact that they did not want to lose their slave labour, such an interesting view that I had never thought of.
I agree , anyone over 50 should be viewed with suspicion . And not be allowed near unmarried people, forners, babies, young folk and childer… In fact don’t let them near anyone who isn’t also a religious nut. And don’t let them look at the sun for too long…
What a sad legacy Ireland as to day.
A disturbing programme last night. Absolutely horrific. It upset me to the very core. Another fine example of how this country treated its vulnerable. We really do have a despicable history. Good old days how are ye.
Depraved, disgusting, disturbed; there are no words to describe the inhumanity of another chapter of this horrid little island’s hidden history. For the babies and mothers involved there will never be a justice on Earth high enough to right the wrongs of the past, but there is no way that this tragedy should be swept under the carpet. I suspect that vested interests in the medical profession, the Catholic church and the authoritarian right in this country (you know, the usual suspects) have something to do with the lack of an inquiry. If anything, those vested interests should be forced to take on the costs of such an inquiry.
The Catholic church has rightly been shown up for being the vile and repugnant machine that it is. However, the medical profession and the state have gotten off fairly lightly over the past decade or so with the many revelations that have come to pass. It is time that these monstrous entities, and the individuals involved are revealed for the reprehensible beasts that they are. Wounds cannot begin to heal until the hurt is recognised fully.
I would just like to point out that no Italian was behind these terrible crimes. These were carried out by Irish people, and no clerical collar, habit or official uniform of any kind can remove from that. This is our problem, and to export the blame would be an act of blind ignorance.
And while I may be biased, as a member of Fianna Fáil, I think it is too simplistic to push the blame on any political party, and then upon deeming said party “finished” deciding that no further examination is required. Any party could have presided over this era of darkness (and I do believe that there were two coalition governments from ’48-’51, and from ’54-’57), and we need to look at the political practices that created this culture of pure disregard for human rights, for no party is immune to it.
As well as this, it is my belief that this goes far beyond politics or religion to how the public services are administered, the deference to so called “experts”, and the generally spineless nature of bureaucrats. If well meaning honest politicians could indeed live and breath change, fix everything, then I believe that we should start asking Fine Gael members and supporters why exactly the country did not turn into a utopia during the Garret FitzGerald governments?
This is too big an issue to sweep under the carpet, and there is much that can be learned from it. The government must set up an inquiry, and everybody should be taking notes if or when it releases its report. Human rights are called RIGHTS for a reason, and they cannot be disregarded in such an appalling fashion.
Above all, this should be a learning experience, not a blame game. It’s too easy to play and win a blame game.
I did not see the show but do we know if these poor angels were given a final resting place. Things like this give me a very dim view of Ireland under Vatican and priest ass kisser governments rule. I feel stories like this make me happier that I live in a more enlightened time ,well its meant to be anyway.
The Catholic Church has a violent bloody history, there is nothing of Christ in it. Just look at it’s spectical. Christ was a simple humble man. The Catholic Church has wealth and power beyond imagination. It is corrupt to it’s root. This saddens, but does not shock. It is revolting, but not suprising. Christ lives, but not in this body of corruption.
You’re welcome to the gravy train of blame. EVERY ONE places blame but yet still in 2016 files are closed and still in snail transport. We as as adoption community are so disbanded and non committal within unity. How can we conquer?
Fianna fail and the catholic church.
The Catholic Church has a
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