By
The Associated Press
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - The Dutch pathologist who allegedly stripped organs from dead babies in England and Canada has been asked to leave a Dutch hospital, but officials said yesterday they did not plan to investigate his work in the Netherlands.
Dick Van Velzen has been "asked to give up his job," said a spokesman at the Westeinde Hospital.
"We hope to be able to say goodbye to this man soon," hospital spokesman Jan Willem Bloemen said yesterday. "We have agreed with him to end his contract."
A British government report released Tuesday said Van Velzen had removed hearts, brains, eyes and heads from thousands of dead children without the consent of their parents. Government officials in London called the findings "grotesque" and "appalling."
But medical officials and public prosecutors in the Netherlands said there was no evidence to indicate Van Velzen carried out such practices while working in The Hague.
"We have no reason to investigate," said spokesman Toon van Wijk of the Health Inspection Service. "Dr. Van Velzen is a registered pathologist and has done his work here by the book."
In London, Health Secretary Alan Milburn told lawmakers that the pathologist, who conducted post-mortem examinations at the Royal Liverpool Children's Hospital between 1988 and 1995, had "systematically ordered the unethical and illegal stripping of every organ from every child who had a post-mortem."
Van Velzen left Liverpool to run the pathology department at a children's hospital in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He was fired in 1998.
Canadian police issued a warrant for his arrest in October after the discovery of organs from two 5-year-olds stored at a warehouse in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.
Dutch Justice Ministry officials had not received extradition requests from Canada or Britain.
When charges were brought against Van Velzen in Canada, the Dutch hospital issued a statement saying it must have been "a misunderstanding" and stressed that "it's grateful that it has such an eminent pathologist among its staff."
Nevertheless, the hospital suspended Van Velzen, who had worked as a pathologist and anatomist since December 1999.
The hospital spokesman conceded that Van Velzen faced serious criminal charges abroad, but said there "is no reason for us to believe anything unusual happened here."
No complaints have been lodged by hospital staff or members of the public, and public prosecutors said they are not investigating him.
Van Velzen has denied keeping the remains of deceased children, saying his activities were simply "routine operations."
