Bookmarkers beware: Bookmarks to pages other than the home page may not work after we change our server in April Editor's Choice | This Week in BMJ | Press releases BMJ No 7132 Volume 316 News Saturday 28 February 1998 Tissue trade in Hungary is investigated A law suit by a Hungarian woman who alleges that tissue and bone were illegally removed from her dead mother's leg without her consent or that of her family has resulted in an investigation by police and customs officials. In her suit, filed after the woman and her family discovered that part of her mother's leg had been amputated, she contends that a second necropsy had shown that the procedure was not medically necessary, and that the missing tissue and bone had been replaced by cloth rags and wood. The removals were not mentioned in the original necropsy report. To date, police have confiscated 65 packages of human tissue from the Semmelweiss Hospital in Miskolc, where the body was held. The packages were scheduled to be shipped by airfreight to a German firm near Nuremberg, Biodynamics International, which would then sell them to hospitals in Europe and the United States for research and medical use. The company sending the packages, Medic Consult Alapitvány, has contracts with two Hungarian hospitals and has been shipping tissue and body parts to Biodynamics since early last year. Medic Consult said it has received 10 million forints (approximately £2.9m) since 1995 for such exports. Investigators said that Biodynamics has received thousands of body parts from Semmelweiss and four or five other hospitals, including some in Budapest, over the past two years. "According to our investigations, organs have been removed from at least 139 bodies," reported István Solymosi, head of the Borsod County Police criminal investigation unit. Dr Lajos Koleszár, the director of Semmelweiss Hospital, said: "We've done nothing illegal. According to Hungarian law, hospitals may use part of the skin, bones, liver, heart, and kidneys for scientific research unless the person specifically asked the hospital not to do so." Carl Kovac Budapest Home | Current issue | Past issues | Classified ads | Career Focus | Feedback Collections | About this site | About the BMJ | BMA | Medline