Frances Hall, mother of BSE victim Peter Hall, is a leading spokesperson for the Human BSE Foundation, a support network set up by victims' families. The resulting book sets out the facts in an easy to read manner and will, I hope, make plain how disaster can result from government's putting the interests of profit before the health and safety of the population. I trust that some good will result from the lifetime of pain that families like mine now have to face, and that the deaths of our loved ones will prevent a tragedy like this ever happening again. All are underpinned with the views of those who have lost most, the families of the Human BSE dead. In total they represent a critical mass in the debate and their views are essential.
Scientific research is vital, as the inquiry points out.
However, if the market remains unaltered in a fundamental way, we may well see many such tragedies in the future. Every death from Human BSE represents a tragedy of inestimable consequence. This book is unsettling, as it should rightly be. I found the submissions from other families deeply distressing, each echo of pain and anger mirroring the deep despair felt most strongly in my own home in the dark days when the curtain of grief suddenly parts and we glimpse a brief view of just what has happened here. The inquiry, in offering such a platform for the families, has placed our views at the core of the matter.