This actually happened to me last year. Fast forward to present day and imagine you are the operator of a Midwestern US funeral home; you live in a metro area that encompasses two states.
One morning you leave your upstairs living quarters in the funeral home to take the dogs outside. In the back driveway you discover an Amazon box with no labels; on the top of the box is an envelope, and when you open it, you find a printed note that reads: “I need to be anonymous for many reasons. This is my baby. Please find it in your heart to give it a proper (religious) burial. I have no money. Bless you.” After you take the box inside and open it, you find a small Rubbermaid container with what appears to be bloody tissue. When you review the video surveillance take, you see that your cameras have captured a woman in an old beater car, bearing the license plate (numbers clearly readable) from the neighboring state. Your cameras capture her kneeling and apparently praying beside the container as she leaves it. The video capture also gives you a clear image of the woman, although you can’t assume the woman is the registered owner of the car. When the medical examiner comes by for a cursory inspection of an unattended death case (this is common), you tell him what happened. He inspects the contents of the container. In his expert opinion, they are artifacts of a human fetus that has been medically aborted (I’ll spare you the graphic details). He establishes age of the fetus as no less than 11 but no more than 14 weeks. He has no interest in the remains and tells you to dispose of them as you wish.
A couple things to keep in mind. You are under no business obligation to comply with the anonymous woman’s request. You also cannot record a fetal death prior to 20 weeks in both your state and the neighboring state, and even if you wanted to record a “Baby Doe” fetal death, you don’t have the information to process it. What would you do? There are no right or wrong answers here.
One morning you leave your upstairs living quarters in the funeral home to take the dogs outside. In the back driveway you discover an Amazon box with no labels; on the top of the box is an envelope, and when you open it, you find a printed note that reads: “I need to be anonymous for many reasons. This is my baby. Please find it in your heart to give it a proper (religious) burial. I have no money. Bless you.” After you take the box inside and open it, you find a small Rubbermaid container with what appears to be bloody tissue. When you review the video surveillance take, you see that your cameras have captured a woman in an old beater car, bearing the license plate (numbers clearly readable) from the neighboring state. Your cameras capture her kneeling and apparently praying beside the container as she leaves it. The video capture also gives you a clear image of the woman, although you can’t assume the woman is the registered owner of the car. When the medical examiner comes by for a cursory inspection of an unattended death case (this is common), you tell him what happened. He inspects the contents of the container. In his expert opinion, they are artifacts of a human fetus that has been medically aborted (I’ll spare you the graphic details). He establishes age of the fetus as no less than 11 but no more than 14 weeks. He has no interest in the remains and tells you to dispose of them as you wish.
A couple things to keep in mind. You are under no business obligation to comply with the anonymous woman’s request. You also cannot record a fetal death prior to 20 weeks in both your state and the neighboring state, and even if you wanted to record a “Baby Doe” fetal death, you don’t have the information to process it. What would you do? There are no right or wrong answers here.
Updates
1 y
This event actually happened to me last year. Think present day after the latest Supreme Court decision.
@OlderAndWiser, I should have invited you to the question. Welcome your thoughts, as always.
@OlderAndWiser, I should have invited you to the question. Welcome your thoughts, as always.
Updates
1 y
Thank you for your responses. The remains were given a proper burial in a private family cemetery on a ranch, thanks to the graciousness of the owner. They were buried next to his twin brothers, both stillborn in 1958. The attendees were myself, my mother, a non-denominational Christian minister, an aging overweight beagle that was indifferent to the whole event, and a donkey that interrupted the brief graveside service to serenade us.
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