Kay Wadey is fighting for fair treatment

Kay Wadey is among the group bringing the action. The hospital her son Harry died at kept his brain, lungs and other tissue samples after he died from a lung complaint when he was just a few months old.

Harry was born prematurely. His lungs weren't properly developed, and this led to severe breathing problems.

Kay told the BBC's Breakfast News programme: "He had a biopsy just a few days before he died. They took a section of his lung, and realised that he wasn't going to live.

"Then when he did die the consultant asked for a further slice of lung to confirm their diagnosis.

"I presumed that if he said a slice of lung with his hand in a pincer gesture, it meant this very small amount.

"But as the man was looking at me he would have been totally aware - as I was trusting what he was saying - that everything else was going to go to. I think that is outrageous.

"In 1999 when I saw the news about families on the other side of the country, I rang the hospital concerned and was told after a few days that they had taken Harry's brain.

"I did ask them if they were sure. After it was a lung problem that he had, and they said: 'No we don't have his lungs, it is his brain'.

"I did ask why, and they said: 'Because that is what we do'."

Compensation

The change in the law for the future is what matters to me Kay Wadey

Ms Wadey said she didn't understand why the families of children whose organs were kept by Alder Hey Hospital in Merseyside had been offered around �5,000 each and other families just �1,000.

"I think a lot of people felt that since a settlement had been made for families in one other part of the country it just seemed reasonable that the rest of the country should be treated in an equal way.

"It is very, very hard for a lot of families to think about the prospect of a further battle ahead. There is no dignity in having to argue in court when other families did not have to."

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She said the issue was not the money - but the point of principle.

"The money is not particularly interesting, although if you have made an offer to some families somewhere you are looking at some form of equality.

"The change in the law for the future is what matters to me."

Legislative change

Ms Wadey said the Human Tissue Bill currently being debated by parliament may help to prevent further abuses of the system.

However, she said the details at this stage were still "very woolly."

"There is an awful lot yet to be properly sorted out. Some of the MPs are talking about presumed consent.

"If you have presumed consent you are nearly back where you were with no request being made to the families, and I don't think that would be a very good move."