Two years ago, Cecelia McGregor had a miscarriage. She was 10 weeks into her pregnancy. The hospital refuses to comment, citing patient confidentiality McGregor is part of a small but growing movement of parents and healthcare professionals nationwide who are demanding hospitals give parents the option of burying or cremating remains left from a miscarriage. McGregor says she had asked nurses and laboratory technicians about what would happen to the tissue after her procedure, but could not get any information. While most states, like Illinois, only give parents choice in the disposition of the remains after 20 weeks of pregnancy, a few states, such as Massachusetts, require hospitals to tell parents they can control the burial or cremation of remains after any stage of a pregnancy loss.
Funeral homes handle the arrangements.
Parents in the Bay State also can ask the hospital to handle the remains, which may or may not bury or cremate the remains. But in the majority of states, contents of the womb prior to 20 weeks of gestation would be handled like medical waste. Hospitals incinerate the material as they would tumors or gallstones. Experts say some parents are becoming more attached to developing fetuses these days than they were decades ago. As a result, parents experiencing miscarriages are experiencing grief from them more acutely, and are seeking rituals to give them comfort.