It is very distressing to read of the removal of body parts from dead children.

I was horrified to hear a dad linking them to "spare parts in a garage". My deeply-felt sympathy goes out to him and all the other parents who have suffered this grief.

However, a friend who has spent her life in nursing did put a different perspective on the situation for me.

She put me in the position of a doctor having to tell parents about the tragic death of their child and then having to ask them for permission to remove parts for research.

I don't think I could do that at such a time and I'm equally sure very few patients' relatives face a question like that.

Research does need body parts - as soon as possible after death. Now I am perplexed. I can't find an answer to this problem

-Mrs E.A. Gates, Western Road, Sompting