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The vast majority of mortuaries have a licence for removal of tissues for research, as well as for post-mortem examination. If in doubt, there is a list of licensed establishments on the HTA website or you can contact the HTA directly.
This is correct. The medical certificate of cause of death is the permanent legal record of the fact of death and is a pre-requisite to brain donation for research.
There is no legal or HTA requirement for the death to be registered and the certification of burial of cremation to be obtained before tissue removal takes place. Insistence on the green form (or ‘body release forms’) can lead to donations having to be declined and valuable research tissue being...
Most brain banks require the donation to be retrieved within 48 hours of death, as the preservation of the brain suffers if the time from death to donation from death is prolonged. Donations are most often delayed by concerns over whether a “green form” is required, or whether the death needs to...
Where the death is violent or unnatural, or is sudden but the cause is unknown, it requires referral to the coroner; in such cases, provided the coroner does not object, the retrieval can go ahead. In coming to a decision, the coroner will have consulted with the pathologist who has been...
There are no time limits for which signed consent forms remain valid and there are no legal requirements for the format of consent forms. There is no need to ask for new forms to be signed if consent was written down by the donor several years before he or she died.
The brain bank consent form contains all relevant permission and information required to carry out the retrieval of the brain and to use it for research. The completion of an additional hospital PM form is not necessary.
You are under no obligation to help brain research. However, brain banks rely on the assistance and good will of mortuaries throughout the country to be able to fulfil the wishes of donors and their relatives, and to provide researchers with essential human tissue for research. Most brain banks...
Please let the brain bank know if your hospital has a policy of not allowing its mortuary staff to retrieve tissue for research, so that the brain bank can contact the Chief Executive to discuss this.
Brain banks and researchers understand that mortuary staff have a busy job but rely on your good will to be able to carry out their work and provide families with the opportunity to support research. Brain retrieval can be carried out in approximately 30 minutes and brain bank staff are always...