The full scale of the NHS organ retention scandal emerged tonight in Britain as an official report confirmed that thousands of families were still unaware their loved ones had been buried with missing body parts.
The British government's Chief Medical Officer said more than 100,000 hearts, brains, lungs and other organs were still being held by hospitals and medical schools across England.
A second report published today accused a pathologist at Liverpool's Alder Hey Hospital of "systematically stripping organs" from dead children - and recommended he should never be allowed to practise again.
British health secretary, Mr Alan Milburn, said criminal prosecutions may follow the huge public outcry over the Alder Hey scandal - which has sent shockwaves through the medical profession.
Mr Milburn told MPs that the inquiry report - chairman by Michael Redfern QC - into the "unforgivable" events had been referred to the Merseyside Police and passed to the Director of Public prosecutions.
Making a public apology to parents and families of the dead children, Mr Milburn pledged: "Those who did wrong will now be held to account."
He said pathologist Professor Dick van Velzen, who worked at Alder Hey between 1988 and 1995, had "systematically ordered the unethical and illegal stripping of every organ from every child who had a post mortem".
The law will be changed to prevent similar events from happening again and ensure that "informed consent" must be given before specified organs or tissues can be taken from bodies, said Mr Milburn.
PA