SOMETIMES the legal process can seem to lack heart or logic.

How else is it possible to explain a system which allows solicitors to hang on to money paid out by the National Health Service in compensation for the unauthorised removal of organs from dead babies?

A York mum whose baby's organs were retained without her permission is still waiting for both an apology and the compensation due to her. Fiona Chilton has decided to speak out about the delays - even though doing so breaches a confidentiality agreement she signed.

That she is willing to take such a risk in making her story public shows just how upset and angry Fiona remains - fully ten years after her baby's body was abused.

Baby Emma died prematurely and her brain was removed at York Hospital without Fiona's knowledge or permission. That alone is bad enough - yet Fiona's agony has been prolonged thanks to a legal dispute.

A sum of £3.3 million has been paid out to a group of Bristol solicitors on behalf of more than 2,000 families who are seeking compensation after their dead babies or children were stripped of organs in some 150 NHS hospitals. Yet none of this money has reached those for whom it is intended because the solicitors are arguing over their costs.

What an astonishing and disgraceful case. A grieving young mother has yet to receive an apology or the compensation to which she is entitled. This matter needs to be sorted out immediately.

Updated: 10:12 Monday, January 03, 2005