Tissue samples and the NHS

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While every sane person has complete sympathy with the parents of the Alder Hay scandal of tertained tissue, it would seem that the new law prevents the use of anything that contains even a single human cell for training of NHS staff.

So if you get a smear test done it can only be used for diagnosis and not the training of staff, similarly urine, saliva and blood tests. News reports have said that 100,000,000 blood tests are taken each year...how will the NHS cope with the paperwork. What happened to the parents was dreadful and should not happen again. But do people feel the same about a blood test, or a tumour?

What do people think, a law taken too far?

I think there's a debate about what the Bill (not law yet) actually means. Health ministers say it isn't as draconian as has been suggested. The General Medical Council supports it so I'd imagine these fears are exaggerated. And it's still going through parliament so there's time to amend it.

I wondered how this Bill will square with the idea put forward in some quarters that transplant organs should be automatically available, instead of as now, when the dead person's family has to give their permission for donation.