The Parents for Justice (PFJ) group has begun legal action against hospitals, health boards, doctors, consultants, the Minister for Health and the Attorney General over the retention of their deceased children's organs.
The group said writs had been issued in 50 cases brought by parents who are members of group and that writs in several hundred more cases will be issued in the coming weeks.
PFJ withdrew its participation with the Dunne Inquiry into organ retention last October, demanding that a statutory inquiry be set up into the scandal. Such an inquiry would have powers to compel witnesses to attend and to make orders for the discovery of documents.
In a statement this morning PFJ spokesperson Ms Fionnuala O'Reilly said they had "no alternative except to embark on a course of litigation.
"The Dunne Inquiry has been in existence now for almost two years and not one family has received an answer to the questions we have posed about post-mortem practice.
"We cannot understand why the Minister wants to keep a lid on this. Maybe we will discover his reasons in the course of the avalanche of litigation that is about to descend on the Minister".
