TheBlaze.com has an article by Billy Hallowell about 'shocking' behavior:
Thousands of aborted and miscarried babies were incinerated, along with medical waste, at various UK hospitals, with some of the remains being used to help heat medical facilities, according to an investigative news program. At least fifteen thousand babies were burned by health authorities or used to help generate power for at least two facilities, according to The Telegraph.
Addenbrooke’s Hospital, for instance, burned 797 babies under thirteen weeks gestation at a “waste to energy” furnace, telling the mothers that the bodies had been “cremated”, the outlet reported (the hospital also made headlines in 2006 for admitting to burning deceased babies in a trash incinerator).
Ipswitch Hospital incinerated eleven hundred remains brought in from another health care facility during a two-year period from 2011 to 2013; these fetal remains were reportedly also used to generate energy for the facility.
After the story broke in UK media, the Department of Health banned the practice, with Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Health Dr. Dan Poulter calling it “totally unacceptable. 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,” he said.
The UK’s Human Tissue Authority, a government body that ensures “human tissue is used safely and ethically”, allows incineration for fetal remains up to 24 weeks gestation.
“Fetal tissue from a pregnancy lost before 24 weeks may be incinerated, although how appropriate this is depends on the individual circumstances,” reads the Human Tissue Authority website.
The government is expected to clarify the rules in the wake of these revelations.
The story will be covered in detail on an episode of Dispatches, a public affairs program on the UK’s Channel 4 network. The episode will be hosted by actress and presenter Amanda Holden, who suffered a miscarriage in 2010 and a stillbirth the following year. “It’s disgraceful to think babies were thrown into the burner alongside waste such as bandages and syringes,” she said, according to the UK’s Mirror. “I hope mothers and fathers will be comforted by the knowledge this won’t go on any more.”
Rico says he's not shocked, but this is a bad thing, if only for the feelings of the parents. (Though why having 'waste' burned alongside your aborted fetus makes it somehow shocking, Rico isn't sure.) And, yes, Rico can only think of Captain Renault from Casablanca, who was 'shocked, shocked'...
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