Judge orders return of placenta to new mother

Here is a wonderful case of the vindication of patient rights coming right up against a whole lotta yuck factor!

-Art Caplan

posted Jul 20, 2007 | link | jump to the comments (2)

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Yeah, Art -- I don't see "Pass the Placenta Pate, Please" as a commonly used phrased anytime soon!~

- by Linda MacDonald Glenn on Jul 21, 2007 at 11:29 AM | link

The placenta is routinely returned to patients in New Zealand, as both the tangata whenua (Maori) any many Pacific Island peoples have ceremonial routines around the management of the placenta. The placenta is usually buried, with a nice plant on top of it (although sometimes it sits in the freezer for weeks/months, next to the ice-cream, awaiting the arrival of grand-parents from places afar to bury the placenta "en famille"). There's no yuck factor at all. It's just what we do here. The word "whenua," in NZ Maori, means both "land" and "placenta."

Annemarie Jutel,
Wellington, NZ

- by Annemarie Jutel on Jul 24, 2007 at 3:40 PM | link

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