Aborted and miscarried fetuses have been used to heat hospitals in the UK. From the Telegraph story:
The bodies of thousands of aborted and miscarried babies were incinerated as clinical waste, with some even used to heat hospitals, an investigation has found. Ten NHS trusts have admitted burning foetal remains alongside other rubbish while two others used the bodies in ‘waste-to-energy’ plants which generate power for heat.
Last night the Department of Health issued an instant ban on the practice which health minister Dr Dan Poulter branded ‘totally unacceptable. At least 15,500 foetal remains were incinerated by 27 NHS trusts over the last two years alone, Channel 4’s Dispatches discovered.
When society creates a killable-at-will caste of human beings, their remains are not going to be treated with respect. Indeed, we consider fetal bodies mere medical waste.
I am reminded of the Swiss suicide clinic that apparently threw urns containing the cremated remains of their customers in a lake.
So, while this news is more shocking evidence of our increasing loss of regard for the intrinsic value of human life, we shouldn’t be surprised that some enterprising workers decided to get some utilitarian use out of the bodies of killed fetuses.