A study in the Journal of Clinical Pathology examined the public's perception of using human tissues gained during surgical procedures and, perhaps surprisingly, found that negative publicity surrounding this very issue had not put off the public from donating their tissue.

Most human tissue used in medical research comes from that removed during surgical procedures such as removal of a cancer tumour. However, in 1999, there was a public backlash after it emerged organs and body parts had been removed without permission following post mortem examinations at Alder Hey hospital and similar outrage about standars of patient care at Bristol Royal Infirmary.

Given that three years earlier, the authors had carried out a survey on the use and ownership of tissue removed during operations, they decided their findings ought to be updated following the adverse publicity. The authors also said they wanted to see whether public opinion was in line with the Human Tissue Act 2004.

They discovered public support has actually risen over the last 10 years.

"This new survey indicates that despite a turbulent decade for those involved in human tissue retention in the UK, public support for a wide range of human tissue based activities, especially biomedical research, has not diminished and that patient opinion aligns well with the Human Tissue Act 2004," wrote the authors.

UK legislation dictates that specific patient consent should be given for the use of human tissue, except that taken during surgery and stored.

The latest survey canvassed 220 patients undergoing surgery over a period of 11 weeks in 2005. They were given 10 potential options for the use of their tissue, including medical research, training, diagnostic purposes and transplantation. They were also asked what they thought happened to tissue after it had been removed, who was responsible for examining it, and who owned it.

In all, 203 people completed the questionnaires (92 per cent response rate). The proportion of patients who said they would be happy for their tissue to be used in research was higher than in the previous survey, with 96 per cent in favour of this compared with 89 per cent in 1996.

Similarly, patients were very happy for their tissue to be used to help train medical students.

Most people knew that surgically removed tissue would be checked for disease, but many were unclear about who owned it. Only 15 per cent of patients correctly identified that no one owns tissue removed during an operation. Almost one in three (29 per cent) believed the hospital owned it and around one in four (23 per cent) thought the patient owned it. This final figure is up from 10 per cent in the previous study,

The research was conducted by pathologist Dr Simon Cross and others at the University of Sheffield and Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.