We can hardly get payment for the actual test, much less the time spent
retrieving the material! 

Joyce Weems
Pathology Manager
Saint Joseph's Hospital of Atlanta


	-----Original Message-----
	From:	Nader, Alexander [SMTP:alexander.nader@wgkk.sozvers.at]
	Sent:	Thursday, May 31, 2001 10:47 AM
	To:	'histonet@pathology.swmed.edu'
	Subject:	RE: returning tissue blocks to relatives

	> I am disturbed by the suggestion from the U.K. that tissue blocks
from
	> autopsies be returned to relatives of the deceased.
	> I cannot see what use the tissue blocks from an autopsy would be
to
	> relatives.
	> Taking them out of the pathology lab system seems to be a 
	> formula for ending
	> all academic research in human pathology.
	> 
	> Allen A. Smith, Ph.D.

	I agree completely with Allen! 

	When I read an article on this issue a couple of weeks ago in a
local
	newspaper, I couldn't believe it!

	For about 150 years a huge amount of scientific reasearch is based
on
	autopsy material. I remember well the article about Thomas Hodgkin's
	original cases stained with immunohistochemistry. This was done in a
British
	tumor center. Are those studies now gone forever?

	BTW: more and more patients require blocks for a second opinion,
sometimes
	material dating back in the seventies of last century (mostly
Hercep-test
	related). And often the search for the blocks is more time-consuming
than
	the staining and interpreting them. Do patients pay for this service
in
	other countries?

	Dr. Alexander Nader
	Path. Institut Hanuschkrankenhaus
	A-1140 Vienna, Austria