[reece(:]

The remains of more than 15,000 babies were incinerated as 'clinical waste' by hospitals in Britain with some used in 'waste to energy' plants

More than 15,000 aborted or miscarried babies were burned as 'clinical waste' an investigation has discovered Photo: Alamy
The bodies of thousands of aborted and miscarried babies were incinerated as clinical waste, with some even used to heat hospitals, an investigation has found.
Ten NHS trusts have admitted burning foetal remains alongside other rubbish while two others used the bodies in ‘waste-to-energy’ plants which generate power for heat.
Last night the Department of Health issued an instant ban on the practice which health minister Dr Dan Poulter branded ‘totally unacceptable.’
At least 15,500 foetal remains were incinerated by 27 NHS trusts over the last two years alone, Channel 4’s Dispatches discovered.
The programme, which will air tonight, 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 babies 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 foetal 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 Bruce Keogh, NHS Medical Director, has written to all NHS trusts to tell them the practice must stop.
The Chief Medical Officer, Dame Sally Davies, has also written to the Human Tissue Authority to ask them make sure that guidance is clear.
And the Care Quality Commission said it would investigate the programme's findings.
Prof 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 scrutinise information of concern and can inspect unannounced, if required.”
A total of one in seven pregnancies ends in a miscarriage, while NHS figures show there are around 4,000 stillbirths each year in the UK, or 11 each day.
Ipswich Hospital Trust said it was concerned to discover that foetal remains from another hospital had been incinerated on its site.
A spokeswoman said: “The Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust does not incinerate foetal remains.”
She added that the trust “takes great care over foetal 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 foetal remains as for a stillborn child and their personal wishes are respected,” they added.
Channel 4 Dispatches, Amanda Holden: Exposing Hospital Heartache, airs tonight (Monday March 24) at 8pm

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/he...hospitals.html

Disturbing and evil in my opinion

[lostalex]

well what else are they good for? Would you prefer we have them taxidermied and placed as decoration around the hospital?

[reece(:]

No they should be paid respect to and not be used as money saving techniques for hospitals

[lostalex]

Originally Posted by reece(:

No they should be paid respect to and not be used as money saving techniques for hospitals

they aren't people, they were tumors. should we also anthropomorphize cancer patient's tumors?

[joeysteele]

It is disturbing that this is a practice that is apparantly acceptable for hospitals to do.
I myself would prefer better treatment to this issue than being incinerated with waste.

However, I may be heading into being controversial here with agreeing with lostalex,(not controversial as to agreeing with lostalex because I do agree with a lot he posts across all areas of this forum anyway),as to this matter.

If the parent does not want to do anything as to the terminated foetus and makes no opinion either way when going for termination,although I can agree it could be done better I cannot really condemn the hospitals for this practice.
I am open to persuasion as to the issue however.

[Nedusa]

This is one of the most self indulgent inflammatory headlines I have ever read. I tend to agree with Alex in the last post but one, these are not people but they are not just clinical waste either.

Not sure why this was put into the mainstream news arena, unpalatable and unsavoury things like this happen and to be honest it's better sometimes not to know..

[Jordan.]

fight global warming!

[Kizzy]

It was suggested in one borough that crematoriums are used to create energy, I'm not totally adverse to it actually.

[Vicky.]

This sounds totally gruesome on first read..but thinking about it properly..I don't really see a big problem with this. As awful as it sounds..it is medical waste. And its not too different to being cremated. If the parents don't want the remains..what are they meant to do with them?

[Z]

"The programme, which will air tonight, 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."

Why would you care what happened to it if you didn't care to have it? I'm not judging, I just don't really know why this is being turned into SUCH a big deal. Being morally outraged by this is fine if you believe abortion is wrong but if you're not against abortion then I would argue that finding this offensive suggests you maybe need to rethink your stance on the issue. To me it's no different than a corpse being donated to science or donating organs; might as well be useful in some way instead of costing someone money to be buried and left to waste away.

[Marsh.]

Originally Posted by Z

"The programme, which will air tonight, 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."

Why would you care what happened to it if you didn't care to have it? I'm not judging, I just don't really know why this is being turned into SUCH a big deal. Being morally outraged by this is fine if you believe abortion is wrong but if you're not against abortion then I would argue that finding this offensive suggests you maybe need to rethink your stance on the issue. To me it's no different than a corpse being donated to science or donating organs; might as well be useful in some way instead of costing someone money to be buried and left to waste away.

"Lose children" as in still birth.

I'm assuming. The term "lose" doesn't describe abortion to me.

[Z]

Originally Posted by 08marsh

"Lose children" as in still birth.

I'm assuming. The term "lose" doesn't describe abortion to me.

Oh I didn't think about that. Well in that case that's totally wrong.

[Kizzy]

However they are lost if they wish to take the remains and hold a funeral then that is totally their choice, however if they don't then yes I assume they are classed as medical waste.

[Vicky.]

I dont think may parents would want to keep the remains of an early miscarriage tbh. It isnt nice and basically (slightly graphic)

Spoiler:

its just like a gigantic blood clot with veins

Later miscarriages I can understand as they might want to get the child buried or something.

[lostalex]

wasn't there a story about how Barbera Bush had a miscarriage early on and she kept it in a jar and she showed it to George W Bush? I remember hearing something like that during the 2004 election...

Maybe it was The Onion or John Stewart or something, but i do remember that...

[Kizzy]

I'm not clicking that, vicky please don't tell me that's a pic of a miscarriage?....

[LeatherTrumpet]

dead is dead. The sooner we incinerate all dead bodies the better and dig up graveyards for housing.

[Livia]

Originally Posted by lostalex

wasn't there a story about how Barbera Bush had a miscarriage early on and she kept it in a jar and she showed it to George W Bush? I remember hearing something like that during the 2004 election...

Maybe it was The Onion or John Stewart or something, but i do remember that...

No, no... she had a miscarriage and kept it in a jar. But the afterbirth went on to be President of the United States.

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by Kizzy

I'm not clicking that, vicky please don't tell me that's a pic of a miscarriage?....

It's not, it's a description of a miscarriage

[lostalex]

Originally Posted by Livia

No, no... she had a miscarriage and kept it in a jar. But the afterbirth went on to be President of the United States.

wait so if georgie boy was the afterbirth, does that mean the thing in the jar was the president all along??

well the thing in the jar was still better than Putin.

[Livia]

Originally Posted by lostalex

wait so if georgie boy was the afterbirth, does that mean the thing in the jar was the president all along??

well the thing in the jar was still better than Putin.

I was just ****ing with you Alex. You know that...

[lostalex]

Originally Posted by Livia

I was just ****ing with you Alex. You know that...

wait, so you're saying you were lying about the part about the afterbirth being President? or the part about George Bush being the afterbirth? i'm confused.

There really is something strange in a jar in Barbara Bush's house though, i'm convinced of that...

[Livia]

Originally Posted by lostalex

wait, so you're saying you were lying about the part about the afterbirth being President? or the part about George Bush being the afterbirth? i'm confused.

There really is something strange in a jar in Barbara Bush's house though, i'm convinced of that...

Only the CIA knows...

[Vicky.]

Originally Posted by Kizzy

I'm not clicking that, vicky please don't tell me that's a pic of a miscarriage?....

I would never post something like that

The description isnt even that graphic tbh but I thought it might need a warning as its ot a nice thing to talk about :/

[Tom4784]

It's grim but I wouldn't have a problem with aborted remains being used that way, obviously it's different if the baby was lost and there's a body.