More on the case of the widow of a US army soldier who died in combat and from whom some body parts once recovered after the incident and from immediate battlefield healthcare were consigned as clinical waste.

With a grieving widow upset that some various bits and pieces where incinerated as clinical waste and the remnants consigned to landfill, a series of awkward and emotionally charged questions followed, somewhat reminiscent of that strange period in the UK that brought about the Human Tissue Act 2004. Though there had been some excesses, and indeed some quite unacceptable actions, there were those who insisted on getting back their appendix to give it “a decent burial” years after some emergency hospital admission and operation.

Read about the variation in approaches to disposal of the dead, and of the various bits and pieces that sometimes fall of the dead, across the various US States. It is a difficult issue since it can cause much upset, yet might impact on hospital practice and the disposal of all clinical wastes including most particularly tissue wastes from the operating theatre and mortuary.