March 25, 2014 2.29 pm This story is over 120 months old

Lincolnshire foetal remains not incinerated

Compassionate care: ULHT has said it does not incinerate foetal tissue in with its clinical waste.

United Lincolnshire Hospital Trust (ULHT) has said that it deals “compassionately” with the remains of unborn babies in the light of national debate over clinical waste.

As reported in The Telegraph based on a Channel 4 Dispatches programme, 10 UK hospital trusts have faced criticism over the way they disposed of foetal tissue.

In these cases, foetal tissue is the term used to describe unborn babies under 13 weeks.

According to reports, some trusts incinerated over 13,000 aborted babies with other clinical waste, with some trusts then using the incinerated waste to heat hospitals in “energy from waste” schemes.

An undercover report by Channel 4’s Dispatches also uncovered that the parents of the babies were not informed or aware of what would happen to their babies’ remains.

However, ULHT stated it had a duty of compassionate care to uphold and to treat all patients with dignity.

Therefore, the trust said parents are talked through all the procedures regarding abortion and consent has to be given by the parents for the trust to cremate — not incinerate — the remains.

In a statement, ULHT said: “ULHT has a compassionate and dignified procedure whereby all foetal tissue is cremated at one of our local crematoria.

“Patients are made aware of this procedure and consent is obtained in all cases.

“No foetal tissue at ULHT has been incinerated as clinical waste or used in a waste to energy plant.”