I first learned of the case of Christine Hutchinson, through this article. The original story is here. She is a 22-year-old woman who is accused of putting her miscarried fetus in a freezer as she tried to figure out what she was going to do with it.
I'm suspicious that the article is printing all the facts. Although it's true that, at least in Ontario, fetuses past 20 weeks have to be disposed of in accordance to the law, how is she supposed to know how old the fetus is? She didn't even know she was pregnant. There is question about the actual age of the child.
I get the feeling there's more to this case than meets the eye.
People do all kinds of things with miscarried fetuses. Some Catholics have been known to bury them in their back yards. Some people flush them down the toilet. I favour respect for the dead, but I just don't see how, given the social conditions of the day, we can prosecute for this problem, when there's not even a commonly accepted idea of what to do with miscarried babies.
I love this line from the most recent article:
For the first time, the family of a woman accused of stuffing her unborn fetus into a freezer is speaking out.
As opposed to born fetuses? That made me smile.
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