By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
There is a disturbing and somewhat macabre report out of Great Britain where the bodies of thousands of aborted and miscarried fetuses were incinerated as clinical waste, with some even used to heat hospitals, an investigation has found.
Ten National Health Service (NHS) trusts have admitted burning fetal remains alongside other rubbish while two others used the bodies in ‘waste-to-energy’ plants which generate power for heat. Department of Health issued an instant ban on the practice which health minister Dr Dan Poulter branded ‘totally unacceptable.’
At least 15,500 fetal remains were incinerated by 27 NHS trusts over the last two years alone, according to British news agencies.
Investigations found that parents who lose children in early pregnancy were often treated without compassion and were not consulted about what they wanted to happen to the remains. One of the country’s leading hospitals, Addenbrooke’s in Cambridge, incinerated 797 fetuses below 13 weeks gestation at their own ‘waste to energy’ plant. The mothers were told the remains had been ‘cremated.’
Another ‘waste to energy’ facility at Ipswich Hospital, operated by a private contractor, incinerated 1,101 fetal remains between 2011 and 2013. They were brought in from another hospital before being burned, generating energy for the hospital site. Ipswich Hospital itself disposes of remains by cremation.
“This practice is totally unacceptable,” said Dr Poulter. “While the vast majority of hospitals are acting in the appropriate way, that must be the case for all hospitals and the Human Tissue Authority has now been asked to ensure that it acts on this issue without delay.”
Sir Mike Richards, Chief Inspector of Hospitals, said: “I am disappointed trusts may not be informing or consulting women and their families. “This breaches our standard on respecting and involving people who use services and I’m keen for Dispatches to share their evidence with us. “We scrutinize information of concern and can inspect unannounced, if required.”
Ipswich Hospital Trust said it was concerned to discover that fetal remains from another hospital had been incinerated on its site. A spokeswoman said: “The Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust does not incinerate fetal remains.” She added that the trust “takes great care over fetal remains”
A spokesman for the Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said that trained health professionals discuss the options with parents ‘both verbally and in writing.’ “The parents are given exactly the same choice on the disposal of fetal remains as for a stillborn child and their personal wishes are respected,” they added.
This certainly speaks volumes of the need for greater oversight of what constitutes medical waste and dignity for human remains and the row controversy is surely guaranteed to address the issue. What is important to recognize in the United States as to what constitutes patient wishes should be carried out, especially with regard to a miscarriage.
One issue that might come to bear is that status of fetuses aborted voluntarily by mothers for the purposes of family planning. What would constitute the responsibility on behalf of hospitals where mothers are wanting to separate themselves from the events of the surgery and do not wish to have any decision in the burial or cremation of the fetus? Should hospitals also be required to treat a fetus in this regard the same as would be the case with an unclaimed person who died in the hospital?
What do you think?
By Darren Smith
Sources:
The Telegraph
National Health Service
Wikipedia
The views expressed in this posting are the author’s alone and not those of the blog, the host, or other weekend bloggers. As an open forum, weekend bloggers post independently without pre-approval or review. Content and any displays or art are solely their decision and responsibility.
Do you know what happens to a fetus and pregnancy tissue in a misscariage at home? It usually gets flushed down the toilet. Should women all of a sudden feel like they should look for the tiny fetus in the toilet bowl and give it a “proper” burial? I understand the sorrow of a misscariage, but, IMO it’s worse to make a ritual of the disposition of a aborted or miscarried fetus. Cremation is done for full grown deceased people, it’s not considered shameful.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Parents of miscarried fetuses in Indiana health care facilities soon will be able to choose what to do with the remains.
Gov. Mike Pence on Tuesday signed a bill into law that would give parents the ability to pick what happens to the fetus, including cremation, regardless of its age.
Parents are required to pay for any unusual requests.
The legislation also requires health care providers to inform the parents of a miscarried fetus of their options regarding the remains within 24 hours and to provide information about counseling services to help deal with the miscarriage.
The bill goes into effect in October.
Read more: http://p.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/mar/26/parent-can-choose-fate-of-miscarried-fetal-remains/#ixzz2xOu9zenf
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter
What do PP supporters think happens to the little fetuses that are removed by the millions in this country? They are trashed. That is better than having them burned?
MANY years ago I lived in a small town which had a clinic which performed abortions, as well as provided emergency services. They eventually lost their “Medical Clinic” status when the city trash people repeatedly found fetuses and bloody/soiled materials in the trash, which were not properly disposed of. They complained. Clinic gone. End of problem.
Well, guess what? Now those same clinics shred and flush the fetuses no one wants.
This is different than what happened in England? You’ve got to be kidding!
human bodies can burn. I think the french burned mummies in egypt to fuel trains.
There is a lot of energy stored in a human body. Once they desicate, they will burn.
Burning can be either an adjective or verb. The adjective form of “burn” or “burning” can mean many things. An example of that is the lyrics to the Elvis Presley song, “Burning Love.” To burn something (adjective) would be to consume it by heat or fire, either figuratively or literally. In the adjective form, it can be exothermic or endothermic.
“Burn” as a verb is endothermic, and means (From Merriam-Webster:
It would be a physical impossibility to heat anything with human tissue, unless the fat were rendered and used as fuel, a process which would require the input of more energy than could be saved. The First Law of Thermodynamics is immutable.
Is not a “cremation” a “burning”? Is there some level of heat temperature that must be applied to get the name “cremation” attached to the deed? It is not like they chopped up the remains and sold it as pork sausage at the local market. Hoopla over hoopla.
Some of the comments on this blog are sad and disrespectful. Our worldliness is turning us into cannibals. What ever happened to the dignity and respect for all life. Do we only care about ourselves? We’ve go to stop this nonsense! Whether miscarried and aborted, this was a life being brought forward on this earth. Let us honor them with a dignified burial or cremation.
Yes, doglover, there is a lot of needless killing going on and starvation, and there is no call for it, there is enough food to feed the world, but greed and selfishness gets in the way.
I pray that someway, somehow, God will put each of us on the right path to stop the madness, selfishness, and greed that we all contribute to in this world.
“Department of Health issued an instant ban on the practice which health minister Dr Dan Poulter branded ‘totally unacceptable.’”
That was the correct thing to do.
My, my…. The civility has been tossed…. And dignity…. In all respects…..
Clearly not the best decision in the world but children are dying of starvation and the current British government is set to turn over the NHS to for profit companies, a much more appalling bad decision. Humans will die. Save the humans.
Randy,
The denier crowd isn’t bothered by how ludicrous their claims are. More fake factoids they use in their Gish Gallop attempts to drown out questions.
You are right. Bodies of any kind don’t burn. It takes a lot of energy to cremate. In fact, what that claim is based on is the likelihood of the use of crematories. As far back as the 1950s or before, hospitals in the US had small crematories, allowing sterile disposal of medical waste, including undeveloped fetal material recovered during miscarriages.
Many people are far more offended at the burning of people in foreign countries with napalm, bombs, etc. If we are complaining about treatment of humans we need to begin controlling attacks on living humans first.
I have to laugh at the idea that burning any corpse is used to generate heat or power. Such a process is totally endothermic, otherwise we couldn’t burn our steaks since they would burst into flame as the heat charred them. This is just another red herring to use for propaganda.
Signs of the End:
‘Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.’
-Matthew 24:12
A disgusting lapse in judgment.
eddie’s mom seems to have made the incorrect “choice,” as did Tyger’s.
This is not a joke, a$$holes!
At least they weren’t being turned into Soylent Green.
What is done is done. Write some regulations requiring advance notice to appropriate patients about disposal with an opt out option.
Reblogged this on U.S. Constitutional Free Press.