this show the true face of USA , USA cares nothing about sentiments ,human rights etc. it is evil and an hypocrite

Speaking from a mothers point of view here, it doesnt matter what state law says about a baby being born alive...if you feel that baby kicking inside you its alive and losing it before or after birth is devastating. then on top of that devastation to have the hospital throw the baby out as if it never mattered is beyond my belief. i feel for this babies family. and may they find thier child and be able to get some sort of peace from this disaster.

Resurrection

Stillborn 23 weeks. The hospital
does not have a policy for this.
I say I'm ready to go. He say's he's on his way.

I stand in front of my church,
waiting in rain and snow,
my prayer book tucked into one pocket.

As we drive to the cemetery
he tells me what he doesn't know:
name, paperwork, family.
In one corner of the new childrens section,
following broken icy footprints
we walk over other graves.

I slip. My prayer book falls out.
When he hands it back to me
he calls me "Father"
though I am not a priest.
The backhoe has gouged out rust-colored
dirt and water which stains the bright snow.

We take off our caps, pull back our hoods,
stand bare-headed in the cold,
wonder who marks this passing.

I pray for this unknown child,
an invisible family, unvoiced grief.
For two mourners.

He lifts the casket, knees himself into the earth.
Cold damp stains his pant legs.
He pushes it down as far as it will go.
Cinches the lid against rubber gaskets. Ashes to ashes.

He holds my arm as we return to the hearse,
knows my back problems, is solicitous.

Jesus says, Suffer little children
and forbid them not unto me
for of such is the kingdom of heaven.

When I proof my notes for our parish records
I see that every place I had typed Chris
I had instead typed Christ.

James H. Drury
April 19th, 2003, issue of the Christian Century


A human life is not medical waste. This was my thought when I called Jim that day. A day I will never forget.


[edit on 7-1-2009 by The Undertaker]

New Jersey law does not consider a stillborn a person. There is no birth certificate and no death certificate

Missouri law is the same way. At least I got to place my son in a cemetery plot. It is strange they do not recognize a still born as a birth but they will let you burry them like a normal person.

I am not sure how a lawsuit would work out here but I would side with the parents on this one.

Raist

Have you ever seen those pictures of trash cans at those abortion clinics, man they will have them over flowing with dead babies. I'm not going to say anything like, I think they should shoot all those people doing that stuff and flush them down the toiliet.

One thing that gets me is the complete lack of corporations and institutions sincerely apologizing in today's world. Nowhere in teh story does it say that the hospital provided a heartfelt apology, rather they decided to aknowledge the woman's pain over having lost a child, but argue whether the baby was even alive when born.

My wife sometimes shops at a large grocery store in an adjacent town because they have a big supervised play area for toddlers to enjoy while the moms do the shopping. She went there yesterday and left our 2 1/2 year old son at the play area. They called her over the intercom a half an hour later, telling her she needed to return to the play area at once. She gets there, my son is bleeding from a nasty gash above his eye and the store employee was very distraught, even to the point of tears. My boy had been running around playing and had stumbled, going head first into a little table they have for crafts and such. Anyway, the manager came out immediately while my wife was trying to calm both my son and the lady who was watching the kids down. He never apologized to my wife, never asked if my son was OK, instead he berated the employee for getting emotional and kept saying "Look, the child is fine, he's OK, the mother is fine, you're more upset than she is. Just stop already."

Total lack of caring about anyone other than self & self's interests by him. All he could think about was "Ah hell, possible lawsuit and this idiot employee of mine is being apologetic and acting like she did something wrong, so a lawyer will surely use that against us." After a trip to the hospital to make sure stitches weren't needed, my wife got a phone call from a manager even further up the ladder who made sure my son was OK before finally expressing something other than a CYA attitude.

This entire news story, along with scores of other current news items and anecdotes from acorss the nation all boil down to one thing: respect. Nobody has any respect for human life, no respect for those who express sincerety and grief, and no respect for thinking about someone other than themselves for a little bit of their day. Respect is a two way street, so I certainly hope that they are also starting to be less confused when they run into people like myself who refuse to show them any level of respect above that which they've earned through their observed actions.

You bring up a good point. When my first son was still born the nurses were all super nice they were great and checked on my wife and myself many times. She had to stay in for over a day to keep an eye on her.

The doctor though that came to confirm my son was nothing more than a fetus though was rather rude I thought. I was parking our truck at the time when everything went down. By the time I got inside (it all happened very quickly in only a few min.) the doctor seen me coming to the door and said “he just wasn’t far enough along”. Not that I expected him to comfort me or anything but I would have expected a better or even more sympathetic response than that.

The nurses though I could not say enough good things about.

Raist

I don't think Doctor was trying to down play your childs death, but maybe trying to give confort in a way by saying what he said the way he said it.
It's hard for some of them to because they have to deal with it everyday, but then some seem as if that's how they get there kicks. The doctor told me my mother was same as dead would only live one day, pull the plug she lived 14 days, with nothing no food no treatment, she wanted to live.

Irrespective of the popular musings regarding abortion, the question of the OP remains glaringly obvious.

What part of the process of 'healing' and 'nurturing' a patient (or his or her mother/family) consists of debasing the memory of a loved one? It is not the judgment of anyone other than the family at most, the mother at least, to decide whether she wishes to consider the corpse to have been a human child.

Mistakes happen, yes, but consider that the reason we pay these professionals so highly, and esteem them so prominently in society is because their vocation is one of doing no harm. Hospital policies MUST be in place to PROTECT their "customers" from 'mistakes' or they are nothing more than meat mechanics, operating for profit, and shirking liability for every accident because the actuarial tables indicated its cheaper to short change your customers and 'play the legal gamble' if and when the time comes.

Sorry for ranting, I evidently have some 'issues' with what passes for 'health care" in this country.

Civil law provides for an avenue through which this message can be sent in a most meaningful way. Unfortunately, some will deem it the sort of 'frivolous' suit that we legislated into oblivion.

I have to wonder what is the effect on our collective psyche to read these kind of stories over and over again? Silent Weapons.

I mean WTF....

Most people don't even throw their dead pets into the trash, they bury them!

It's quite insensitive and makes you wonder why people don't put themselves in the place of others and how that mother felt, especially in this case.

Even a stillborn, what about all the time the mother spent with the baby in her belly and the bond and anticipation? ... to just throw the "attempt" in the garbage?

Did the child need to cure cancer? or write a book before it was considered human and worthy of a burial?

Some people even treat their inanimate objects better than that poor baby was treated.

The hospital were I work registers every baby that is born as a patient, a new admit so to speak. Given a medical record number etc to recoerd care given and assess billing etc. If the baby takes no breath as in still born they aren't registered. Now I wouldn't say it means they are human babies just need no care. The babies aren't thrown in the trash but treated as any patient that dies. The mothers are put on a ward different from the one with babies that live so they don't hear the babies.
The law may state things in a less caring way but may be for legalities.
I still hope it was a tragic mistake and not routine. And as a previous member said the nurses tend to be the nurturing ones not the doctors.