LONDON, May 23, 2001 (LSN.ca) – Every year in Britain the bodies of nearly 500,000 unborn children are incinerated along with clinic waste such as used syringes and soiled swabs, according to an investigation by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN). The investigation found that environmental legislation, which stops most hospitals from incinerating the bodies on site, means that 10,000 foetuses are transported to 37 regional incineration units every week. Most of the bodies are those of the estimated 300,000 unborn children who die each year in miscarriages during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy as well as the 180,000 children killed by abortion.
The RCN said it feared some hospitals were disregarding Government regulations issued almost 10 years ago indicating that disposal of foetal material should be “sensitive and respectful.” They noted “Current practice is felt to be completely unacceptable by health professionals working in the field.” The RCN offered guidelines for more respectful disposal of remains at its annual conference yesterday saying, “Parents should be given the same choice on the disposal of foetal remains as for a stillborn child.”
They suggested fetal remains should be given the dignity of “communal” cremation or burial. Miscarriage patients should be offered the chance of an individual cremation or burial funded by the hospital, while women having abortions would be given access to the information but not asked specifically how they planned to dispose of the bodies.
See the coverage from the Guardian and the Telegraph: https://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,494494,00.html https://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=001851641145319&rtmo=axHxXpaL&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/01/5/23/nfoet23.html
(with files from SPUC News Digest)