Tissue waste disposal is a sometimes difficult issue, since patients may have their own view on disposal, perhaps of an amputated limb, or of a placenta, than do healthcare professionals.

In Australia, a young couple has been left in a state of shock after being told their miscarried foetus “was probably thrown out with the medical waste” by a Swan District Hospital nurse.

The distress of a miscarriage must be awful, and news like this adds considerably to that distress. Indeed, in hindsight it would have been better to soften the news and not be so explicit in explaining the fate of this aborted foetus.

This is, surely, the ultimate segregation error but in in China, it seems that things can get even worse!

see also Placenta disposal