In discussing this matter, it is important at the outset to distinguish between popular perceptions of the human body and the approach adopted by medical science. From the popular viewpoint, the body is an important part of what makes a person. Indeed, an enhanced sense of the body as the focus of individual identity, a social trend that has gathered momentum in recent years, has made a significant contribution to the current controversy. It is not surprising that some people find distressing the sight of these organs removed from the body. In recent months, people have expressed the conviction that a dead body of a loved one buried without its full complement of organs or limbs is incomplete, thus impairing their capacity to complete the grieving process.
Medical science takes a different view.
In the pathology laboratory, all organs are part of the whole, each vital to the functioning organism, none carrying any particular wider significance. All are viewed dispassionately, the heart as a pump, the brain as a network of neural tissues, the eye as a receptor of visual stimuli. Indeed, the Alder Hey report acknowledges the particular contribution made by the study of the hospital's collection of hearts to the sharp decline in mortality following surgery for congenital heart disease. Until now, pathologists have worked discreetly in a world concealed from public view. Their activities have not been secret, but they have been kept private, because most people find them distasteful.