Since early 2000, all trusts in Scotland have adapted their procedures to ensure that the form they use is explicit about the permissions being given, and that information about the implications of a hospital post-mortem examination is available to parents who wish it.MEL(2001)21 of April 2000 instructed trusts to ensure that relatives were fully and sensitively informed of the organisation's policy on post-mortem examinations, including why the examination was thought necessary, how it would be carried out, whether organs would be retained and the options for their subsequent disposal.The interim report by the review group on retention of organs at post-mortem, published in February 2001, contained a clear recommendation that no hospital post-mortem examination should be undertaken without the agreement of relatives, and no organs should be retained without their specific consent. It also set out a code...