QUITE a storm has arisen over hospitals removing the organs of dead children without the consent of their parents.

We need to look hard at the situation.

We have old people's homes all over the country because people are living longer and this is because we have the NHS.

Of course, it is possible to make certain criticism, but we should not let genuine sympathy be replaced by self pity.

Although I am not religious, I was told years ago that the body is nothing - it is the soul that matters.

The ideal would be to allow the NHS to take charge of a body after death and then release it to the family when they are ready. Some organs may be used for research and some may be used to give sight or life to a child.

Christ had a huge following when he went around healing the sick and the crippled. Now, the NHS has to do his work. Don't make that work harder by asking time-wasting questions.

No one so far has said that the NHS killed any children. It's just that they removed certain organs with the good of the nation uppermost in their minds.

The nation can do no less than to put its total trust in these people who have made the NHS a corner stone of the nation.

LEN RUSHTON, St Michael's Court, Blackburn.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.