News

AUCKLAND, NZ, February 28, 2002 (LSN.ca) – An unfolding scandal at a New Zealand hospital has revealed that hundreds of hearts from aborted babies have been kept in storage after having been cut out of their bodies without consent or notification of their parents. The New Zealand Herald reports “Hundreds of abnormal hearts stored for up to half a century at Auckland’s Green Lane Hospital are unlikely to be returned to family members because they were taken from aborted foetuses.”

The hospital’s clinical director of children’s heart surgery, Dr Kirsten Finucane, has revealed “quite a large proportion” of the up to 1300 hearts were from aborted foetuses and most were taken without family knowledge. The move follows a review of the hospital’s heart collection and informed consent procedures.

See the report in the New Zealand Herald:  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=1090275&thesection=news&thesubsection=general