Reports of medical experiments on children revealed “serious criminal and ethical issues for the NHS,” as part of the infected blood scandal, parliament has heard.
Dame Diana Johnson raised the reports by the BBC and The Sunday Times during the Commons debate on Tuesday. Dame Diana said that claims of children being experimented on without their parents’ consent in the 1970s and 1980s constitute possible breaches of the 1947 Nuremberg code.
The Nuremberg Code is a widely accepted set of principles in medical care, including the importance of consent.
Cabinet Office minister John Glenn said that the latest media reports demonstrate the “unimaginable suffering of all those impacted by this dreadful scandal.”
The infected blood row saw more than 3,000 people die after contracting HIV or hepatitis C, after they received contaminated blood via NHS treatments in the 1970s and 1980s.
Up to 30,000 people were given contaminated blood products after receiving blood transfusions or via other treatments.
The latest media reports claimed that unsafe clinical testing involved children with blood clotting disorders and haemophilia, where patients were given contaminated blood products from high-risk donors.
Treloar’s Boys
Among those infected with HIV and Hepatitis during routine haemophilia treatment were pupils at Treloar’s School, near Alton in Hampshire.In a statement released last week, the school said that its staff, students and their families “placed their trust in the treatment and advice given out by the NHS clinic, and the doctors and medical professionals who ran it in the 1970s and 80s.”
The school said they were “shocked” to find out that some students may have received experimental or unsafe treatment, without sufficient consent of the families.
Four former Treloar’s students, known as the Treloar’s Boys, said the school’s response was “disingenuous.”
“We take issue with the idea that effectively they too were a victim. Their apparent disregard of facts and supporting documents leaves us feeling dismissed and outraged,” they said.
Their statement said the school funded research that breached the Declaration of Helsinki.
“For the school to continue to deny any responsibility, putting the blame wholly with the NHS, is not only disrespectful to the 75 dead former pupils, but is both preposterous and insulting,” the former students said.
Compensation
Ms. Thewliss condemned the lack of redress for the affected families and asked for Mr. Glen’s response to the parents of “these children who were used as guinea pigs, an utterly despicable practice.”Dame Diana urged the government to deliver immediate compensation to those affected by the blood scandal. She argued that despite the government accepting the moral case for compensation, no financial redress scheme had been announced.
In 2022, the government announced that “an interim compensation payment of £100,000” would be made to “infected individuals and bereaved partners who are registered with any of the four UK infected blood support schemes.”
The inquiry said that bereaved parents and bereaved children, who have lost their parents, should also receive compensation. Downing Street wants to wait for the final report, before it makes decisions on the scheme extension.
Tabled by Dame Diana, the amendment proposed that within three months of the bill becoming law, the government sets up a body to implement the compensation scheme.
