The High Court has dismissed a claim for damages by a Dublin couple against the National Maternity Hospital over the retention of the organs of their two dead children.
The court found that the couple, Angela O'Connor and Jason Tormey from Ballybrack, had failed to establish that they had a cause of action against the hospital that could be compensated in damages.
The couple's first child was born at 25 weeks and died soon after delivery in 1996.
A second baby girl was stillborn two years later but it was not until 2000 that the couple learned that some organs had been retained.
They sued the Holles Street hospital, seeking damages under a number of headings including personal injuries, breach of contract and negligence.
But today the High Court dismissed their action.
Lawyers for the hospital applied to have the case dismissed claiming no case had been made out under the various headings, and it had not been established that the couple had suffered any injury which could be compensated.
Mr Justice Peart said he had great sympathy for the couple's sadness and distress but the factual issues had to be analysed dispassionately by the court.
