As of late, there has been much interest by pro-life legislators in finding ways to curb the current abuse of selling the aborted remains of unborn children. Last year, Mr. David Daleiden of the Center for Medical Progress uncovered a rather vast conspiracy of abortion providers who were intentionally skirting federal law that prohibited the sale of aborted fetal remains. Unfortunately, this has not been the only indignity, in addition to a violent and intentional death, that these unborn children have encountered. For decades, aborted children have been disposed in many inhumane ways such as becoming biohazard waste or just merely thrown away in the garbage. However, recently a proper solution has been advocated among some of the state legislatures to propose legislation that would either require the interment or burial of the remains of the aborted unborn.
It has become increasingly clear that the remains of unborn infants are treated with as much disrespect as the abortion process itself. This, of course, has horrified many over the course of decades. In the mid-1980s there were efforts within the pro-life movement to try to rescue the cadavers from the garbage bins of abortion clinics. In her book, Abandoned, Dr. Monica Migliorino Miller describes one such horrific discovery in her early years as a pro-life activist,
We could stick our hands inside the boxes and come out with fists full of broken bodies. At the edge of the world, in this desolate extremity, abortion presented human beings according to the structure of its ethic. These were not human beings in-relation to others, to their mothers and fathers who gave them life and then gave them death. These fetal humans were reduced to a simple mass of impersonal matter, their human individuality crushed out of them (Abandoned, 162).
What is the Catholic, or any Christian, to do when faced with this problem?
Recently, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission held hearings on new rule changes that would mandate that abortion clinics must either inter or cremate the remains of the aborted unborn child. Indiana, also, very recently, passed legislation that mandated the interment or cremation of aborted unborn remains. In fact, the selling of fetal body parts has caused so much consternation that Americans United for Life has issued model legislation to deal with the dilemma. While many would agree that requiring abortion clinics to either bury or cremating the child will seriously thwart the selling of fetal body parts, there is a much more profound reason to pass such legislation.
The main reason to pass such initiatives is to humanize the unborn. But Miller, who was dealing with the scandal of fetal remains being burned with animal remains, proceeds, “Thousands of people were jarred into the realization that something indecent, something abominable, was taking place, beginning in the abortion procedure room and ending in the rising smoke of the Pet Haven crematory” (Abandoned, 167). This guttural response is the realization that something improper regarding human remains is taking place.
But how exactly does this humanize the unborn? Again, in her book Miller aptly states just how burial can help with this goal,
The Christian religion recognizes burial of the dead as the last of seven corporeal works of mercy. Burial of the dead is a sign that human beings are in relation to one another, tied together by more than just nominal relationships. Authentic human living requires a recognition that human beings are interrelated on a very personal level (see Abandoned, 159).
In fact, this work of mercy is associated with Christ’s commandment to love one’s neighbor as one loves oneself (see Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos. 2401-2449). In modern Western civilization, people do not just leave the dead on the side of the road. Society has the decency to bury the unknown in unmarked graves. One sees it as his obligation to his fellow man precisely because it is his fellow man. To act contrary is to act in a way that is contrary to our nature. Consider the following from the Catechism of the Catholic Church,
The Church who, as Mother, has borne the Christian sacramentally in her womb during his earthly pilgrimage, accompanies him at his journey’s end, in order to surrender him ‘into the Father’s hands.’ She offers to the Father, in Christ, the child of his grace, and she commits to the earth, in hope, the seed of the body that will rise in glory (no. 1683).
Man, being made in the image of God, recognizes the need for burial since it foreshadows the resurrection of the glorified body. But even if one were not to look at the theological perspective, Natural Law certainly dictates that respect for the human body, even for the remains of a human body, is proper. The human body is not mere trash, but something that is more profound.
But how does this type of legislation move society toward a Culture of Life? St. John Paul II helps answer this question by stating,
When it is not possible to overturn or completely abrogate a pro-abortion law, an elected official, whose absolute personal opposition to procured abortion was well known, could licitly support proposals aimed at limiting the harm done by such a law and at lessening its negative consequences at the level of general opinion and public morality” (Evangelium Vitae, no. 73).
Firstly, the legal reality that abortion on demand is present and the companion cases of Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton essentially rendered the unborn person a non-legal entity has caused this situation in which the remains of the aborted are treated in an inhumane way. This type of legislation obviously would correct that existing evil. Furthermore, it helps move public morality by humanizing the unborn child as just discussed. In one particular incident, Dr. Miller recalls how one woman, who wrote a note asking for forgiveness from her unborn child, whom she believed was buried by Miller’s efforts. Miller concluded, “On a lonely day, one woman had come to this site, and her act of love banished her isolation. In her sorrow the order of the world, rooted in human bonds [emphasis mine], was affirmed” (Abandoned, 193). Even in death human relationship isn’t shattered. People visit graves and, at times, keep the cremated ashes of their loved ones in their very homes. It is a very human experience.
Such initiatives are necessary in the current culture. Dr. Miller’s assessment is correct when she stated that people were jarred in a realization that something improper was going on and that it started at the abortion clinic. David Daleiden’s videos had the same effect. It is time to enact legislation to bring dignity to those unborn who died in an unjust manner. Dr. Miller is correct in her conclusion when she stated, “These children were treated like garbage while they lived. We should give them the dignity in death that they didn’t have in life” (Abandoned, 164). Legislation that mandates the burial or cremation of these aborted children is a first step in restoring that much needed dignity.
Joe Kral has been involved in the pro-life movement since he has been in college. His MA in Theology was completed at the University of St. Thomas where he specialized in bioethics. From 1996-2003 he was the Legislative Director for Texas Right to Life. During that time he was also a lobbyist for the Department of Medical Ethics at National Right to Life. From 2004-2007 he consulted the Texas Catholic Conference on pro-life legislative initiatives. In 2006 he was awarded the “Bishop’s Pro-Life Award for Civic Action” from the Respect Life Ministry in the Diocese of Dallas. He currently serves as a voluntary legislative advisor to Texas Alliance for Life, is a member of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars, taught as an adjunct professor of Theology at the University of St. Thomas, teaches as a Forward Toward Christian Ministry instructor for the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, is a member of the Knights of Columbus, and is doing doctoral studies at Harrison Middleton University where he is specializing in the ethical and legal theory of St. Thomas Aquinas. He has been married to his wife, Melissa, since 2004 and they have 2 children together. They attend St. Theresa’s Catholic Church in Sugar Land.
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