Organs of UK Nuclear Workers Secretly Harvested; Energy Secretary Apologizes

fernlyn writes with word of a report detailing a decades-long practice of clandestine post-mortem organ removal from the bodies of dozens of workers in the UK's nuclear energy industry; Britain's Energy Secretary Chris Huhne has apologized to the families of those workers whose organs were taken without consent or even acknowledgement. Many of the organs taken were removed without any apparent forensic purpose in mind. Surviving relatives are understandably upset with what they see as cavalier treatment of their loved ones' bodies (even beyond unauthorized organ removal), such as the replacement of bones with lengths of broomstick.

Comments

UK gov "sorry" = UK gov "we got caught"

[FuckingNickName]

Anyone who has been remotely connected with the British civil service will understand that, unlike even the United States in an increasingly dwindling number of areas, there is no real sense of government serving the people. The government exists to manage the unwashed masses and knows what is good for you, even while every individual understands that the government is really serving itself. This notion of nanny leadership is even woven into the undergraduate experience at Oxford, where the nation's managers are bred (and probably Cambridge too): if you have any sense of egalitarianism, it is repulsive but difficult to ignore.

Re:What the hell is the fuss about

[Anonymous Coward]

Property rights.

Your body is your most important piece of property. If the government can just go around "cavalierly" doing whatever it wants with your body, how can one say that they live in a just society?

Re:What the hell is the fuss about

[nomad-9]

"Cool; so when someone close to you dies they wont mind if I come along and urinate on their body before the funeral?"

Not really. They're dead, why would I care?

With all due respect, I believe you are being dishonest for the sake of argumentation. Feelings towards loved ones don't just magically disappear at the moment of death.

Unless you don't have any feelings to begin with, which is still a possibility. By being a psychopath, for instance.

Re:I saw a documentary about this.

[ComaVN]

So to prevent people from illegaly using my dead body as an organ buffet, I have to register to let people legally use my dead body as an organ buffet?

Nice one.