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October 1, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The body of an unborn baby that was found preserved in a jar at a Florida high school in August may have been obtained after an abortion, according to two individuals who say they were former students at the school.

News of the macabre discovery broke earlier this month, after a teacher at Cape Coral High School returned from summer vacation and discovered the jar containing the “human specimen” in formalin in a paper bag in a cupboard in a classroom at the school. 

The baby, a girl, was reportedly between 16 and 19 weeks gestation. The umbilical chord was still attached. “The fetus' eyes, toes and other features were all well preserved,” according to the Orlando Sentinel.

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Police became involved as part of an effort to track down the origin of the jar. However, according to former students, the jar has been present in the classroom for more than a decade, and a previous teacher had often used it as a teaching tool.

According to a statement released by Amity Chandler of the Lee County District, “A former child development teacher no longer at the school advised the product in question was used by her for over a decade as a teaching tool. It was given to her by a retiring science teacher who had used it in the classroom for an unknown number of years.” 

Two former students told Fox4 that they were present in the classroom in the 1990s, and that the teacher told them that the fetus came from an abortion. 

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Fox4 also reports that it isn’t clear whether keeping the body of a human fetus is legal in Florida. However, one biomedical expert in the state told the news agency that it certainly is “not normal.”

Keith Barker of Carolina Biological, who specializes in providing specimens of other animals for education, said he doubted that any commercial specimen provider would have been involved in obtaining the body of the baby. 

“It is pure speculation, but someone may have preserved it on their own,” he said.